urbaneer

Cebu - we're back!

2012-01-28T03:27:00.000-08:00

Cebu: 19 January - 25 January 2012

Kung Hai Fat Choi! Once again we make the most of our Chinese New Year holiday and we head back to Cebu - to the lovely Serena Resort where we also went last year. Just like last year we had a fantastically relaxing time. We chilled in the 'cubes' every day and read a lot. Astrid made good head-way on War & Peace. Snorkling on our first day we already saw 2 turtles just out on the house-reef amongst all the corals and fish. This year we also added diving to our itinerary in order to keep practicing our PADI skills acquired in the Maldives back in October. On our diving explorations we got to explore a small lane wreck, Pescador Island amongst other divesites and we saw a lot more turtles, some black tip reef sharks, lion fish, garden-eels, a cuttlefish spewing black ink, cute yellow black spotted box fish, a fat puffer fish, many nemo's and countless others (we think we even saw a swarm of sardines). On our final day we went to swim with the whale-sharks - the gentle giants who came to this spot in Cebu about 2 years ago and now are being fed to stay there and to entertain the tourists. We also were treated again to a dinner on the beach which is always a very pleasant and romantic experience...

Back in Hong Kong

2012-01-28T03:21:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong: January 2012

Luckily the January blues will not last very long as our Chinese New Year holiday in Cebu is just around the corner. To keep us entertained we went for our second Champagne brunch on a very misty day (the first brunch we went to was just before xmas). We also started hiking again to keep us fit and get us in good shape after the holidays :) So far we have done 'our loop' and Sunset Peak in Lantau.
We include a random selection of life in Hong Kong just before xmas and now in January. Late last year we got into checking out a few of the private kitchens which we are sure to continue in 2012

Winter travels 2011/2012

2012-01-01T10:59:00.000-08:00

Austria & England: 15/12/2011 - 8/01/2012

Und wiedereinmal geht ein Weihnachtsurlaub zu ende - viel zu schnell wie ja jedes Jahr. This year Ian and Astrid spent the winter period in their respective home locations - Astrid in Austria and Ian in England. For Astrid's trip a little routine has established itself which always starts when arrives on Uttendorfer grandma's birthday (81 this year), then comes Christmas on the 24th (with Hornblowers and Würstelsuppe), the traditional xmas Schweinsbraten in Uttendorf & xmas Clubbing at Nexus Saalfelden, followed by a trip to Leoben to spend time with Grandma. The Styria portion of the holiday also includes an excursion to Graz to catch up with old friends from uni times. To conclude the xmas trip Astrid gets to spend some more time with her dad (since last year this is an overnight stay at Fred's mountain chalet) before it is time to say good bye again to grandparents and parents. New this year was a Silvester Concert in Salzburg and on her trip to Leoben Astrid discovered new treasures in grandma's flat - stamps from 1908 and the war time with currencies that long since ceased to exist (K&K Heller & DeutschÖsterreichische Kronen!). It was another fun holiday - the only downside was the weather, whilst it did snow a lot this year it also rained a lot unfortunately and so it was a less picture postcard perfect winter wonderland.

Shoveling snow at midnight

Oma mit neuen Fingerhüten / Grandma with new thimbles

Opa/Oma/Papa Drechseln - talking about wood work

Papa's Hütte am Berg - Fred's Mountain Chalet

Maldives

2011-10-23T02:42:00.000-07:00

Veligandu Resort, Rashdoo Atoll, Maldives: 15-22 October 2011

We fell in love with the Maldives - they are a bsolutely amazing. Gray Eagle Rays and black or white tip Reef-sharks swam around our water villa and we could watch them on the way 'out' or on the way back 'home' to our over-water villa on stilts. It is a amzingly quiet (apart from the waves you occasionally hear the sea-plane) and the water has the most amazing colours in all shades of blue. It is a picture postcard kind of place. We learned to dive and passed out Open Water Padi certification - as part of the training we went on several dives and saw lion-fish, leaf-fish, a frog-fish (Astrid's highlight), big Napoleon fish, different types of trigger fish, oriental sweetlips, Moorish Idol's, Puffer fish, Nemo's and many many more...

...we will definately go back

Water Villa's

Shark attack

Sea Plane

KL

2011-09-24T09:09:00.001-07:00

Kuala Lumpur 2/09/2011 - 6/09/ 2011

It was with high excitement that we headed to KL to meet Adrian, Tania, Alis and Magic. There is nothing better than combining traveling with catching up with good friends. Ian had been to KL some years before, just after the Petronas Towers had opened in 2000 but it was Astrid's first time there.

We did have some time to do some exploring before meeting up with the gang. We took in the Petronas Towers (although could not go up them), the historic
(but now

converted) Central Market and paid the first of a few visits to Jalan Alor, the best street food street in KL where we feasted on crab and seafood noodles.

Once Ad and Tania had landed we went to visit them staying with their hosts Alis and Magic in their lovely condo. We spent the next couple of days enjoying tremendous hospitality and fun, a great pool-side BBQ and crazy Magic-strength Daiquiris, visiting some great Malay and Asian restaurants and bars of all shapes and sizes from the ultra cool and trendy serving baby food cocktails (I don't understand either), to European Ale houses, Table Football venues and cozy local places.

KL has modernised even further since Ian's previous visit but it remains an exciting mix of the traditional and the ultra-modern with fantastic cuisine and great nightlife.

Phnom Phen - Tarantula anyone?

2011-09-24T09:08:00.001-07:00

Phnom Phen - 5 Aug 2011 - 8 Aug 2011

We love Phnom Phen - the chilled breakfasts at 'Living Room', the best iced coffee in Cambodia at the Russian Market, all the silk stuff and other clothes shops (they have great recycled fashion items) and of course the great company of our friend Vanessa! It's been the secnd time we went to see her and I'd come back again...I think I can easily say PP is my favourite weekend get away.

This time we went back to all our favourite places for some more shopping and chilling. We also ventured into new territory with a great local dinner spot V and her crew had discovered and one evening at the famous 'fish amok' restaurant we also decided to try out the local stomach turning delicatesse tarantula (yes, the spider and no, we don't think we'll have it again) :) Further evening entertainment was provided via the band 'Cambodian Space Project' (listen to 'House of the Rising Sun' sung in Khmer below). The screen behind the band showed films of Cambodia in the 60-70's and it was fascinating to see how 'modern' Cambodia was back then! The films also showed a documentary of royal dancers and that it takes 15(!) years to become one of the top ones...Ian was haunted by the images of how they are able to bend their fingers/ellbows/feet into abnormal positions

Hanoi - scam ahoi!

2011-09-24T09:06:00.000-07:00

Hanoi - 1/07 - 3/07/2011

Astrid's mytery birthday present. She loves surprises so this year she got wisked away to Hanoi. Ian even managed to sneak a visa into Astrid's passport without her knowing!
Hanoi is hard to describe and best experienced...motorcycle crazyness, quaint areas with socialist poster shops, tourist trap lacquer shops, dead man in transparent coffin, mini plastic chairs, scams, ice-coffee, pho and streetfood...would sum up the town.
We spent hours looking at socialist art (we have a sweet spot for all socialist realist art/posters), browsing through lacquer shops (Astrid likes those, but less now that our paid shipment never arrived and we bascically got conned) and sipped many many ice-coffee's to cope with the heat. We also went for dinner at Bobby Chin's restaurant and tried our hand at a cooking class the next day. The cooking class was fun and included a trip to a local market where we could witness the gutting of frogs first hand. And of course we also had to go and visit good Uncle Ho in his mausoleum.

New York

2011-09-24T09:03:00.000-07:00

New York, May 18-27

I (Astrid) got to got to NY with work (about one of the last people allowed a business trip before the financial clamp-down stopped all non-essential travel). I had been to NY twice before, but now had never been in the city on my own. I set out to find places again I had been to before (Gray's Papaya for Hot dogs; nice Mexican food and I also discovered a very nice Ethepoian food place) and also tried a few new things (Chamber Music at the Metropolitain Museum; 'Obscult NY Walking tour). As I had forgotten to bring a camera, I decided I had to buy one and happened to walk past a LOMO store (this is how I ended up owning my first LOMO camera :)). My hotel was called the Mondrian, a hip/trendy blue place more like a bar than a hotel (that's why I almost didn't find it when the cabbie dropped me off in a deserted backstreet in the rain in the middle of the night) located on Crosby Street (funnily enough the street featured in the film 'Adjustment Bureau' which I happened to watch on the plane). The below foto's are a random collection shot with the LOMO.

Taiwan - Kenting

2011-09-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

Taiwan, Kenting National Park - 9/09/2011 - 13/09/2011

We were delighted to welcome Oli and Diana to stay with us in Hong Kong as the first guests in our new apartment. As well as spending time in Hong Kong we organised a trip together to Southern Taiwan. We flew to Taiwan's second biggest city, Kaohsiung, and travelled down to the Kenting National Park, an area of outstanding natural beauty. We thought we'd make things simpler on the journey down by hiring a cab rather than worrying about the bus. It was certainly faster, terrifyingly faster! Our driver, who we christined 'Machete', drove with his teeth stained red from sucking and chewing on betel nuts and rode his betel-nut buzz by driving dangerously fast and laughing at our terror! His attempt to break the land-speed record rather spoiled a journey that I was rather looking forward to taking in. We were happy to arrive in Kenting in one piece after 1.5 hours of terror. Thankfully our choice of accommoation worked out really well, The Surf Pad hostel in Hengchung town was quiet, off the beaten path and a comfortbale place to hang out. We spent two very happy days discovering the southern tip of Taiwan on scooters. There was even the bonus of a nuclear power station positioned at the tip of the beach adjacent to our hostel. We enjoyed the picturesque surroundings, relaxing in hot spas, swimming in the sea and eating some great local cuisine including fresh-off-the-boat sushi and sashimi at cheap local prices - we had a great time and would highly recommend a trip to Kenting - just try to avoid Machete!

Kota Kinabalu's Monkey Business

2011-06-12T02:30:00.000-07:00

Kota Kinabalu: 7 May - 10 May 2011

We completed on our flat on 3 May and the whole week we moved all our belongings from our little room in Causeway Bay to our new pad at the end of civilisation on the island. As a reward and to make the most of another long weekend we journed to Kota Kinabalu, in North Borneo and the part that belongs to Malaysia. Borneo is an interesting island - not only is it the third largest island in the world - it is also shared by three countries: Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei; the Malaysian bit is home to Mount Kotakinabalu, the 20th tallest mountain in the world and Borneo is also native habitat and home to the endangered orangutan. Our main reason for going there was to relax by the pool, but we also stopped by the nature reserve part of the Shangri La Rasaria hotel complex. It is fascinating to see the apes swing around the trees and if you ever wondered how apes go around their business - just watch the first video very closely.

Thai Easter Break

2011-06-11T23:07:00.000-07:00

Bangkok: 22nd - 25th April 2011

The Easter holiday provides the perfect excuse to get out of Hong Kong for a few days and go exploring. This Easter we headed to Bangkok. It was Astrid's first visit whilst Ian hadn't visited the Thai capital for over ten years. There has been a huge amount of investment and development in Bangkok in this time to the extent that it looked and felt a very different city from the one Ian visited in 2000/01.

It was also a different style of travelling this time around which in all likelyhood lead to the formation of a different impression. Backpacks exchanged for hand-luggage, hostel upgrade to hotel. We stayed in the Pullman hotel which was very pleasant, located in the Ratchathewi district, close to the Victory Monument and adjacent Sky Train station. The Sky Train is perhaps the city's most symbolic investment legacy alongside the huge shopping malls that have sprung up across the city. It's an overground metro system linked to an underground line resulting in large swaves of the city and main thorough-fares being shrouded by ten storey high concrete pillars and supports for the one, two or three-levelled train tracks and pededstrian walk-ways adding a Blade Runner-esque quality to the city at night.

We initally ecshewed the Sky Train and opted for an old-school Tuk Tuk to transport us through the hot, sticky, dusty and aramo-filled back-streets to our first destination, a very tasty Thai lunch at the Erawan Tea Rooms. Adjacent is the Erawan Shine with a four-faced buddha, our first tourist sight of the trip. It was a hot day, 33 degrees, significantly hotter than Hong Kong, so we decided to escape the heat with an authentic Thai massage at Health Land, followed by a Frie Curried Crab dinner at one the local-favourite Somboon restaurants. We headed to the top of the Banyan Tree for a couple of cocktails on the 61st floor roof-top bar which offers superb views across the transformed cityscape.

We were up early the next morning as we headed to the Dumnoen Saduak Floating Market which is a good two hour drive from Bangkok. This was a little bit of catharsis for Ian as he remedied his visit by public transport ten years previously which saw the market closed by the time of his arrival. The floating markets are a little bit crazy with floods of tourists, but its still a great spectacle and lots of fun to visit. On return to the city we headed down to the river for a boat trip but we were stopped in our tracks by a biblical thunderstorm. We retreated to the restored Centre World Mall which showed no ill effects from almost being destroyed in the political unrest that took place in Bangkok in 2010.

On Sunday morning we caught the Sky Train to huge and hot Catuchuk Weekend Market where we picked up a couple of lamps for our new apartment. The afternoon saw us visit the Divina Spa where we relaxed for a very pleasant couple of hours, although Ian felt that his 'berry scrub' was like being covered in jam. After the spa we tried once again to go down to the river, once again a tropical thumnderstorm was on the way but we just about made it in time to enjoy a trip down the river before the daily electrical storm lit up the sky and opened the heavens. Our final evening saw us visit Sra Bua, a very funky Thai-fusion restaurant that re-invents classic Thai cuisine with innovative ingrediants. It was very tasty and lots of fun, check out the potted carrot with edible mud.

All in all we had a great weekend in Bangkok!

Ian's 35th birthday with 35 little surprises

2011-06-11T00:42:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong - 15th - 17th April 2011

The first instruction from Astrid received on a single jigsaw piece said to meet at 8.30pm at Peel Street, which turned out to be the address for a lovely French restaurant, Chez Patrick, where we enjoyed a beautiful meal; beetroot ice cream, rabbit and veal were all on the menu.

The surprises continued on Saturay morning as we headed for a taxi to who knows where? Well, Astrid knew and we arrived at a hotel on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong with a wonderful views over the harbour. In the afternoon we headed to one of Hong Kong's main temples that we had not yet visited; the One Thousand Buddhas Monastry in Sha Tin. The clue is in the title, there are thousands of statues of buddha as you walk up the hill to the temple and inside the temple building themselves.

We enjoyed a champagne sunset from our hotel room before heading out into Tsim Sha Tsui for the evening, which also included a first-time food experience - Turtle Jelly (Guilinggao)- varieties commercially available in Hong Kong do not usually include the crushed and powdered turtle shell of the endangered Golden Coin Turtle that traditionally used to be a key ingrediant, some jellies have essence of other more commonly available farmed turtles or none at all, we really hope that the version we tried didn't, and based on the taste experience, we won't be endangering any turtles again anytime soon.

On Sunday morning further surpises were in store, an early start and a boat-trip into the South China Sea to visit and hopefully spot Hong Kong's endangered Pink Dolphin population. Thankfully the weather was good and the Dolphins were out to play. Once back home Ian received a final bag full of surprise presents, lots of things to furnish our new apartment.

Singapore Flyers

2011-06-10T23:22:00.000-07:00

Singapore 8-10 April 2011

Astrid had to go to Singapore for work and Ian was flying over for the weekend (it was Ian's actual birthay weekend). Ian previoulsy denounced Singapore as boring, but on this trip he was proven wrong. We had a great time and an exciting two days to explore the city-state which in the last 10 years has started to rival Hong Kong as a prime location in South East Asia.

Karina, Astrid's work colleague based in Singapore showed us Lau Pa Sat, one of the Hawker Centres, which was bustling with life under the beautiful Victorian inron structure. Together with tasty skewers we also tried very nice stingray for the first time. To finsish off the evening we headed to Raffles Hotel and enjoyed a Singapore Sling cocktail at the drink's birthplace.

On Saturday we started the day with Fish Head Curry (Ian was brave enough to try the eyeball which we captured on video) before exploring the colourful Little India district. To cool us down after strolling through Littel India at the heat of the day we did what the Singaporeans do and headed for a mall to shop and cooled down with a Vietnamese Iced Coffee on the roof-top.

After a typical thunderstorm and once the rain had cleared we headed for Marina Bay Sands, Singpores first and only casino complex, where locals are discouraged to gamble and have to pay a fee to get in (foreigners go free). We were less interested in the casino, but keen to head up to the roof-top bar for cocktails & great views. our first attempt failed as Ian rocked up in sandals (not allowed), so we had to go back to the hotel for proper shoes and managed to be let in on our second ascent :). MBS is an amazing ship-like structure on the top with an enourmous skygarden and infintiy pool (only guests can swim there).

Once we satieted our appetite for cocktail, the light-show and views we headed to a canal road, where lured in by one of the seafood restaurants, we devoured the most expensive 1/2 and 1/2 chillie and pepper crab in the world. Luckily we decided to unorder the geoduck clam much to the dismay of the local shop-owner. Hungry and slightly tipsy is not condusive for the most effective decision making...

On Sunday we went for breakfast at the PS cafe on Dempsey Road - one of Karina's recommendations. Dempsey Road is this great little chilled winding suburban road lined with trees, cafe's, galleries and antique shops - we could happily spend many weekend brunches there. To round off our weekend we headed to the Singapore Flyer - a giant ferris wheel - before heading back to Hong Kong. Compared to Hong Kong, Singapore is a lot more chilled, clean and gr een.

Tom and Fei Fei Visit Hong Kong

2011-06-10T22:50:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong - 25th - 27th March 2011

We were delighted to welcome Tom and Fei Fei to Hong Kong, although they had both been here before. We started off by inviting them to our favourite Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant where Fei Fei was able to provide some additional insight into the menu beyond the knowledge that we had developed by trial and error over the previous few months of regular patronage.

Fei Fei had BBC international-competition judging duties to perform on Saturday but Tom was free to join us for a hike around Lamma Island. After a dim sum breakfast at our local dim sum place we were well fuelled for a good three hours of walking on a nice warm and sunny day. We had built up a good appetite after three hours of walking and settled down for a seafood meal, our first taste of abalone, before heading back to Hong Kong Island.

On the Sunday morning we introduced Tom and Fei Fei to one of the more local-style dim sum places in Central where you will find chicke feet bones left on the table by your fellow diners. After a stroll around Times Square we bade farewell as Ian was off to Beijing with work later that afternoon and Tom and Fei Fei prepared to head back to Europe.

Chinese New Year in Cebu

2011-02-11T02:40:00.000-08:00

03/02/11-06/02/11 - Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Chinese New Year is the most special holiday of the year for the Chinese, prompting the largest mass migration of human's on the planet. It's a time for family and celebration, if you're Chinese. Hong Kong effectively closes down for the long weekend. So we took the opportunity to escape to some warmer climbs, the Filipino tropical Island of Cebu.

The flight from Hong Kong to Cebu is just two and a half hours. Unfortunately, the Cebu Pacific Air flight departs at 1.35am and arrives at 4.15am! Not great for sleep patterns. The journey though was relatively straightforward as we were collected from Cebu International Airport and driven 119kms to the Serena Resort that was to be our home for the next three days and four nights.

The drive of 119km's takes over 3 hours as the road from Cebu to Moalboal's White Sand Beach is far from an express way - but very interesting, particularly the town of CarCar, which aside from having a great name was shrouded in a smoky mist and boasted an incredibly busy market and one of the 'disco' churches, of which, regrettably, we do not have photographic evidence.

After daybreak we arrived at Moalboal, it was overcast and spotting with rain, so we were pleased to go to bed to get some sleep after the journey. When we awoke it was brighter but still a little overcast - we learned that a typhoon had passed through two days previous and so the weather was still a little unsettled. Thankfully the weather steadily improved over the four days and we had a great time. White Sand beach boasts a coral reef only 15 metres or so out to sea, perfect for some serious snorkeling and tropical fish spotting! And we even spotted a turtle in the water! We like turtles. When the tide was out we spotted a lot of wild life in the little puddles - a selection is videoed below :)

Snails disguised as stones

Sea-stars on the move (very slowly obviously)

Traditional breakfast: Sticky rice in banana leaves with ripe mango and chocolate drink & Dinner on the beach during our final night - very romantic :)

and some more pictures from our tripIan's snorkeling adventure!

Christmas Time!

2011-02-11T00:40:00.000-08:00

16/12/10 - 08/01/11: Christmas in the snow...

Being relatively new to the city for Christmas 2009, we spent the festive season in Hong Kong. But by December 2010 we were more firmly established for our second Christmas in Hong Kong and decided that there is really only one place to be at Christmas time, back in Europe with our family and friends.

Astrid headed back to Austria, Ian headed first to Harpenden for Christmas and then onto Austria for New Year. Happily, Saalfelden and the Pinzgau valley enjoyed good snow fall and so we enjoyed the snowy countryside. We even spent one night at Fred's mountain chalet after hiking up to it with our snow shoes, it was minus 16 degrees outside, so we were happy that the chalet was nice and warm through the night. We also made the trip to Graz and Leoben to see more friends and family. We celebrated grannies 80th birthday and also had the pleasure of grannies - hopefully not last - famous 'Schweinebraten'

It was great to see lots of friends and family, and we were sad to leave Europe, but excited to be heading back to Hong Kong for 2011.

Off to the Philippines

2010-11-30T00:58:00.000-08:00

26/11/10 - 28/11/10: A weekend in Manila

Weeks and months have past since Astrid's last proper holiday, and so with Christmas in sight but not yet in touching distance, we decided that a weekend away was in order to help recharge some batteries. It would also allow Ian to get out of the flat as he waits and waits and waits for his new job to start.

We flew in by Philippine Airlines (banned by the EU, apparently... thankfully we survived) and stayed in the very lovely Diamond Hotel. Flights and hotels in Manila are relatively good value at the moment, this may be because some of the terrorist attacks that have occurred in Manila in recent history. There is a lot of security around the hotel and in general in Manila, which is a little disconcerting, but necessary we suppose.

Its fair to say that we struck a good balance between relaxing and exploring. In the morning we relaxed with a Reflexology massage which was actually quite full on, in the afternoon we explored. We visited Intramuros which translates as "within the walls", the walls enclose the historical city/fortress featuring 16th Century architecture, a Cathedral, Churches, Hospitals and Universities. The old city is surrounded by thick, high walls and moats built during the Spanish colonial period.

It was while looking around the Intramuros' Spanish fort in 30 degree heat that we had a moment of weakness and agreed to take the 'sight-seeing tour' by horse and cart and very cheesy tour guide. It was actually very enjoyable!!

In the evening we went over the seafood market for dinner where we were able to first choose and buy our dinner from the market and then have it cooked for us. We went for fresh lobster, crab, prawns and squid - cooked in sweet chilli and Singaporean style, all very tasty!!

On the way back to the airport we became stuck in yet more traffic congestion, a feature of life in Manila. It would be harsh to suggest that Manila is a traffic-jam with buildings, but it did feel like this sometimes! Also, something you won't see anywhere else are jeepney's - brightly decorated and privately run 'mini busses' - not recommended for foreigners :)

Hairy Crab, Raveonettes and Flaming Lips

2010-11-13T23:17:00.000-08:00

12/11/10 - 13/11/10: Celebrating a year in Hong Kong

To celebrate our anniversary of being in Hong Kong we embarked on a couple of firsts. On Friday evening we went for our first hairy crab! The crab is a famous delicacy in Shanghai cuisine. The crab meat is believed by the Chinese to have a "cooling" (yin) effect on the body. It certainly has a distinct and more powerful flavour than a typical crab and eating it is quite an event!

The next day we went to our first gig in Hong Kong. In 2002 Q magazine named The Flaming Lips as one of 50 bands to see before you die, so it seemed like a good opportunity when we saw that they were due to play in Hong Kong. Astrid was keen to see them as they brought back memories from her exchange student time in Oklahoma (The Flaming Lips happen to be from Oklahoma City).

We had no idea what a gig in Hong Kong was going to be like but we could guess; 1) expensive, 2) well-behaved 3) in the middle of no-where. We were right on all three accounts, the tickets were 620HKD (about 55GBP) but we did get to see the Raveonettes as support who were really good. The venue was the cavernous Hall 10 at the Asia World Expo which is right out by the airport and represents a bit of trek from Causeway Bay. The crowd, a good mix of locals and ex-pats warmed-up by the Raveonnettes in fine style, looked on in awe as the craziness of the Flaming Lips show was set-up and then unleashed in front of them and onto them which included the group emerging one-by-one from a door half-way up their video backdrop, lead-singer Wayne Coyne's 'space walk' surfing the crowd in a transparent zorbing ball followed by the release of tens of huge balloons and the manic-firing of confetti guns and bombs - it was quite a spectacle! Coyne later emerges with giant laser-firing hands, firing the lasers at huge glitter ball and smashing a huge LED-enhanced gong.

Adrian's Wedding

2010-11-03T01:50:00.000-07:00

02 - 08 Oct '10 - Best Man Duties

We were delighted to hear that Adrian and Tania were to be married and it was a big honour for Ian to be Adrian's best man. This news meant many exciting possibilities revolving around a trip back to the UK, a stag-do to organise and of course a wedding to attend.

Ian organised the stag-do in Munich, from Hong Kong - this was a logistical challenge! Despite a last minute scare (Expedia and Marriot booking FAIL!) all went to plan. The trip to Munich for the stag-do handily coincided with the last weekend of Oktoberfest. Ad and I also decided that we wanted to go by train which was ultimately a great decision. Accompanied by Marcus, we were speedily and comfortably delivered from Kings Cross to Munich Main Station via Paris. The other stagees arrived by plane, and by midday on Saturday the group was assembled and sampling the fine Bavarian beer and wurst. After a pleasant stroll around Munich we headed for the Oktoberfest itself and continued to sample the fine fayre on offer. Big shouts to Paulaner and Lowenbrau! It was not Ian's idea to clothe Adrian in traditional Bavarian attire, but the end result was nothing if not amusing and as someone said, 'who's a pretty girl then?'

A week on and it was time for the big day itself. As far as I can recall everything about the day was pretty well nigh-on perfect; even the October weather smiled upon us with a beautiful warm sunny day that lit up a fine venue. Once again we wish the happy couple lots of love and best wished for the future!

After a final day in London it was time for a final home-cooked roast dinner and then back to Hong Kong!

A year of travels

2010-09-11T19:07:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong: 9 September 2010 - 11 September 2010

Unbelievably but true we left London for our adventures already one year ago. Who would have thought that we spend our one year travel anniversay in R66 the Revolving Restaurant on top of the Hopewell Centre, Wanchai, Hong Kong. The food left a little to be desired for, however, the view was great.

Exactly one year ago we were discovering St. Petersburg and getting ready to go to Moscow (Entry 1; Entry 2).

Revolving around Hong Kong provided a good opportunity to reflect on the last year and the verdict is 'exciting, intersting, challenging, but good'

Penang - a weekend in Malaysia

2010-09-11T19:06:00.000-07:00

01/07/10-04/07/10 - A Malay Birthday Treat

Astrid solved the mystery of our destination for her birthday treat on the travelator to the departure gate at HK Internal Airport. We headed to the Malaysian island of Penang, 3 hours flight from HK. Ian visited Penang a few years previous and didn't remember the traffic being so bad, it took nearly an hour and a half to get through the rush-hour traffic to our accommodation in the north of the island in Batu Ferringhi. We were there in time to have a look around the local nightmarket and enjoy a Malay-style Laksa.

Georgetown, main town on the island is a UNESCO world heritage site and wonderful place to enjoy a leisurely stroll and take in the rare mix of influences and styles; Chinese, Malay, British and Indian cultural heritage is on display. Interestingly, many grand old colonial buildings lay crumbling in a state of disrepair whilst elsewhere on the island huge new apartment complexes reach for the sky. Georgetown also has several jetties with people living over the murky waters. We enjoyed a lovely Indian meal served on a banana leaf in the Indian quarter and took afternooon tea at the wonderful colonial art-deco E&O hotel.

We also took advantge of the good weather and hotel facilities to relax by the pool and enjoy a touch of pampering with a massge at the hotel spa. The hotel was adjacent to the beach and sea, but the sea is not the most enticing due to the heavy silting and abundant jelly-fish that arrive. The pool was just fine for us.

Lady Penh

2010-06-25T22:22:00.000-07:00

Phnom Penh, Cambodia: 16/06/2010 to 20/06/2010

For Astrid's birthday we visited our friend Vanessa in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She is there as a volunteer for VSO working with the Cambodian Human Rights Organisation. She was working with indigenious tribes when we arrived, but V arranged for us to be picked up from the airport. We had our first couple of days to ourselves and we explored PP until V got back. We had an amazing time and we've tried to capture some of our impressions from Cambodia here. Phnom Penh is located in the south-central region of Cambodia and at the confluence of four rivers: the Tonlé Sap, Mekong, and Bassac rivers.
FYI the masks are for the dust when on the back of a Tuk Tuk on the streets of PP :). The other picture is V's favorite sugar cane stall (comes in plastic bags with ice).

Our first real Cambodia experience was Astrid's birthday meal in the local restaurant next to V's place:

Day 1: Strolling through the streets of PP we ticked off the city's sites one by one:
Independence Monument (Vimean Ekareach): To commemorate the independence from foreign rule inaugurated in 1962. It was designed by renowned Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann.

Central Market (Phsar Thmey): Is a unique artdeco building, which some argue is the largest dome structure world wide. Prior to 1935 the area was a swamp.

Wat Phnom: The only hill in town, also featuring the only Elephant in town. Legend has it that in 1372 Lady Penh fished a floating Koki tree out of the river. Inside the tree were four Buddha status. She built a hill (phnom) and a small temple (wat) at what is now Wat Phnom. Later, the surrounding area became known after the hill (Phnom) and its creator (Penh), hence the city name Phnom Penh.

Royal Palace & Silver Pagoda: They were built in the 1866 under the French Protectorate and King Norodom (with French technology and Cambodian designs), and have survived the traumas of the 20th century amazingly intact. The Silver Pagoda has a silver tiled floor and a collection of priceless historical objects which were buried and hidden during the Khmer rule.

Day 2: Confronting Cambodia's history

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21 Prison): A school converted into Cambodia's most important prison in 1975. More than 14,000 to 17,000 people were systematically tortured to extract confessions here before being killed at the Killing Fields; only 7 prisoners made it out alive.

The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek (About 15km south of PP): A former Chinese cemetery, this is where the Khmer Rouge killed many thousands of their victims during their four-year reign of terror. Today the site is marked by a Buddhist stupa packed full of human skull. There are also pits in the area where mass graves were unearthed, with ominous scraps of clothing still to be found here and there. Overall there were around 20,000 killing fields all over Cambodia during the Khmer Regime.

Street life view from Tuk Tuk coming back from the killing fields into PP.

Platzregen / Downpour: Apparently the rainy season was about six weeks late, but that day it started with an amazing downpour. The sounds of the rain drops hitting various surfaces was incredible and it seems that the people of PP really appreciated the rain :)

Day 3 & 4: Russian Market impressions and other pics from PP. We urbaneered by following the recommendation of a stranger and went for a swim in the Raffles Hotel Royale, it was very refreshing. We hope our postcards arrived. The national dish is Fishamok and we tried it together with the Cambodiam BBQ. Cambodia is a country with a violent history and now a corrupt government. It has been really interesting to visit and makes one appreciate all the things we have even more.

A random collection of Hong Kong life

2010-06-13T06:46:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong: 1 June 2010 13 June 2010

As part of a community project at work I got to spend a day with migrant workers and domestic helpers who were badly treated by their employers (wages withheld etc). It was very interesting to hear their stories and you have to admire their courage as some of them leave home as young as 13 to serve as domestic helpers in Saudi Arabia. One of them was in the national woman's basket ball team of Sri Lanka and another girl would like to be a police woman, but the wages in Indonesia are just to low for her to go back...very humbling to be in their company.

Signs: I have developed a strange fascination with all the neon signs, particularly the old ones. I think they look really retro some of them, so watch this space as I venture around town to photograph them

We got the knife: It is quite sad but quite exciting at the same time...our loyalty to our local supermarket has earned us a couple of stainless steel knifes...the promotions manager will be proud. Hard work it was as well. Sometimes other people were waiting by the till ready to take your loyalty stickers...and to be well and truly on top of the game you have to go shopping on the weekend and spend over 300 HK$ to get double the amount of stickers...yes, sad we know :)

Hong Kong wildlife: fuzzy caterpillar, yellow butterfly....and on our last hike I got bitten 25 times

other pictures of Hong Kong life: the international art fair and a rather controversial window display

Explore a city when it is asleep

2010-05-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

Tokyo - 20/05/2010 - 27/05/2010

Urbaneering is all about creatively exploring urban spaces. One of the ideas from our guide is to explore a city when it is asleep. There are two ways to accomplish this - stay up late or get up early. We tried both.

Getting up early
Tokyo's fish-market in Tsukiji presents the perfect opportunity to do so. Getting up at 4am we arrived at the fish-market around 4.45am and it was already in full swing. People whizzing around on little trolley carts full with boxes of fish. We also saw the amazing massive tuna's at various stages as they move through the fish-market - being unloaded frozen from the truck; unfrozen being sliced up; a glimpse into the tuna auction; and a newly bought tuna being carted back and lifted...and we have it all on video.

Truck being unloaded with frozen tuna, which look like little rockets:

Carving up the tuna:
We were also lucky enough to be able to witness first-hand one of the huge tuna's being skillfully filleted.

Auction:
The tuna auction sees hundreds of fresh tuna laid out on the auction hall floor and frenzied bidding activity by the fishmongers. The auction is off-limits to foreigners, but we managed to sneak a peek before being ushered way by a superbly-attired official.

Tuna being lifted:

Staying up late:
We also made an attempt to stay up late and to visit an area called Golden Gaia. Walking through this small area (roughly 2,000 square metres (21,520 square feet) in size) is like stepping back in time to early post-war Japan when the area was filled with artists and radicals wanting to change the world. Golden-gai, or golden district, borders the bustling Kabukicho entertainment area in downtown Tokyo and provides a startling contrast to Kabukicho's modern bars, glitzy strip joints and noisy karaoke club. Golden-gaia, is a historical area of dimly lit alleyways and buildings fronted by thin, wooden doors which hosts some 180 tiny pubs in small two storey houses - most bars are only big enough to squeeze in a handful or so customers and almost every bars is serving a different clientele. With such limited space, many of the bars rely on their regulars and charge a cover charge to visitors, some are even closed to 'non-members' and are known to provide a frosty welcome and exorbitant bill to the casual visitor.
Apparently the Lilliputian bars survived the rampant construction of Japan's bubble-economy years, thanks to the passion of its patrons. In the 1980s, when the yakuza, Japan's crime syndicate, was torching properties to sell the land to big-thinking developers, Golden Gai's supporters took turns guarding the area each night.
Spoiled for choice we settled for visiting Golden Gaia's number one anime bar. One would have thought in high-tech Tokyo that the bar might have been super sophisticated, but instead it was a room full of tiny toy figurines and video clips being played out of a TV in the corner. Cocktails were named after characters....we were told anyway...
For more Japan adventures have a look at the previous blog entry

The 50's, 60's & 70's, Ma On Shan and Monkey business

2010-05-08T05:11:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong - 20/04/2010 - 09/05/2010

The 50's - the new old world order: Hong Kong sees a revival of 1950's style diners with retro furnishing and food. Old English food with a Chinese twist

Man On Shan - second ascent (01/05/2010: 4hrs): this time we finally got the see the stunning views of the Saikung countryside - quite a different hiking experience to last time :)

Dim Sum with the locals - what can be better on a Sunday morning? Followed by a stroll through Kowloon and a stop at the Hong Kong Museum to look at an exhibition of Hong Kong in the 60's and 70's

Monkey business: Last weekend we were wondering whether or not there are still monkeys in Hong Kong and sure enough on our walk today we spotted loads:

Sushi, cherry blossoms and all things Japanese

2010-04-17T04:14:00.000-07:00

Tokyo - 16/04/10 -18/04/10

It must have been one of the coldest and most miserable days weather-wise that we encountered so far. 5 degrees, rain and wind - freezing arctic conditions. So, last night we stayed inside to stay warm and enjoyed a Kushikatsu meal in Kuchinobo, a 1950's Japanese style shish-kebab restaurant where you are served, Kushikatsu, tiny deep fried nuggets. They serve Kushikatsu oakamze (one at a time) and we also had Obuzuke, rice over roasted green tea - very tasty!

Luckily the weather was better today. Sunny and slightly warmer, so we went exploring. We didn't quite get up early enough to see the Tsukiji fish-market in full swing (actually there was nothing much going on by the time we got there), but we still had some fantastically fresh sushi in one of the many little restaurants. We then navigated the underground system to Asakusa, a district in Tokyo famous for it's Senso-ji - a Buddhist temple dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon . On our walk we also discovered a crazy Japanese Pachinko gambling den with people transfixed to their screens and tiny metal balls making hypnotic cathsching noises at high speeds. After a leisurely stroll we reached Ueno Park, which still had a few cherry blossom trees in bloom. Not far for the park is Yanaka, one of the oldest and preserved areas of Tokyo. The low-rise, chilled nature of this area is very charming and a great rest-bite from high-rise, hectic Hong Kong.
We also walked past the oldest and finest papershop in Tokyo (photo)

On Yanaka Ginza street (video), a narrow shopping street with retro atmosphere full of small shops, cafe's and traditional crafts stores, we stopped for some coffee and cake. People are very friendly and we even made a friend, Mr B.B., who had written a book about old Tokyo

On Day 2 we continued our explorations and visited the site of the Imperial Palace & Yoyogi Park - really disappointed not to see any dancing Elvises!, but we got to see a Japanese Wedding pair instead. We also wondered through Shibuya, the teenage fashion district.

Ian's Venetian Bithday

2010-04-11T06:37:00.000-07:00

The Venetian, Macao - 09/04/10-11/04/10

The last time we went to Macao, we saw the old town, enjoyed the heritage and the culture. This time we went to the new Macao, the Asian Vegas! When Portugal handed back Macao the Central Communist Party charted a new direction for this once-quaint colonial backwater. The CCP decided that with gambling banned in mainland China, what they needed to do was build the Chinese version of Las Vegas to which they could attract their newly and increasingly wealthy population, Hong Kongers (an hour away) and intrigued tourists to gamble and consume, Vegas-style. They obviously mislaid their Marxist theory texts that day...
The Venetian is the centre-piece of the Cotai strip, a planned strip of casinos that are rapidly being developed to rival Las Vegas and attract the Asian high-rollers. Its fair to say that they make it very easy for you to spend time and money in their hotel which is the largest single structure hotel building in Asia and the fourth largest building in the world by area.

We were picked up from the HK-Macao ferry by one of the many shuttle buses and taken to the West Lobby to check-in, the place is so vast I think it took us about an hour to get from the Lobby to to our room. As you walk through the Hotel/Resort/Casino, 'where opulence meets excitement', despite our initial cynicism at the pure capitalist vulgarity of it, you can't help but be impressed and entertained wherever you go. They have divided one floor into a scale model of Venice, there are canals with singing gondoliers, painted blue sky ceilings that darken to a night sky, entertainers courtesy of 'streetmosphere TM', bands play in various town squares, high-end retailers line the route and thousands of people walk around wide-eyed whilst consulting maps.

Our room was bigger than most HK apartments. We visited a spa and were ushered to our luxurious private spa room with Sauna, Jacuzzi, Steam Shower, Office Area and two massage tables where we spent approx. 3 hours being pampered. The food was delicious, the casino was great fun; we won on roulette, the room was comfortable, we did a bit of shopping and generally had a very enjoyable weekend.

Taiwan - land of hotsprings and crazy fast food

2010-04-04T06:01:00.000-07:00

Taiwan - Taipei: 02/04/2010 - 06/04/2010

Day 1: Taipei 101 & Shilin Night Market:
Taipei 101 is the worlds second largest skyscraper only surpassed in height by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Taipei 101 was officially the tallest building until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in January 2010. The tower is shaped like bamboo and features a series of eight segments of eight floors each. In Chinese-speaking cultures the number eight which is associated with abundance, prosperity and good fortunes. 101 is also a symbol for the binary system used in digital technology.

Shilin Night Market: it rained, but this didn't stop us trying some fried tempura squid served in a plastic bag or a rolled savoury wrap with spoonfuls of brown sugar mixed into it.

Day 2: Wulai
What do you get when you mix the 70's, a theme-park, and Taiwanese mountains? A themed hotel resort sparkling with faded 70's glory perched high up in the Taiwanese mountains above Wulai water-fall that could only be reached by a 70's style cable car. A groovy concept in its day, it is a shame to see it whither away...it didn't stop us, however, having a go on a pirate swing.

What Wulai is better known for are its hot springs and they are awesome. Free pools of hot spring water right next to the stream in a valley surrounded by picturesque mountains and full of friendly locals. You heat up in the hot pools and then you cool down in the cold river - very refreshing!

Day 3: Yongminshan National Park & Shida Night Market
The weather wasn't on our side as fog enveloped the mountains and visibility was low. Our hike up Mt Cising was great though and we got to see some sulfur vents and fumaroles.

Shida Night Market is a trendier, upmarket version of Shilin and it is right where we are staying. The food around us is tasty and very interesting. Watch our dinner being prepared in two parts....

Day 4: Urbaneering & Beitu
Taipei has been urbaneered! As a slight twist to the star-map idea we used the emblem of the Kuomintang, the ruling party of the Republic of China (aka Taiwan). We overlaid the star on a map of our 'hood' and visited the twelve tips of the star, below is a selection of photographs of our sites :). In the afternoon we went to Beitu, unfortunately the Thermal Valley was closed, but we got to soak in another hot spring spa.

Friends, Food and far flung places

2010-04-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong 7/03/2010 - 31/03/2010

Orli and Lewis were our first visitors, they were on a trip through China and stopped by in Hong Kong at the beginning and end of their trip. It was great to see them and show them a little bit of our new home.
On the first leg of their travels we took them to Lamma Island, where we feasted on crab an lobster.
A couple of weeks later when Orli and Lewis returned after a fantastic trip in China we took them to City Hall for some Dim Sum, to Shek-O and later for a tasty HotPot - their first, but we think we converted them :)

Weekend Manoeuvres

2010-03-07T21:12:00.000-08:00

21/02/10 - 06/03/2010 - Guangzhou, Lantau Island, Kowloon & New Territories

21/02/10 - A day trip to Guangzhou

We have been out and around exploring our extended neighbourhood. The first weekend after Chinese New Year saw us realise that we both sill had an outstanding entry remaining on our Chinese visas and that they would imminently expire if they weren't used. So we decided that we would pop up to Guangzhou for the day. There is a direct train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou which takes under 2 hours with expedite border formalities at each terminus which makes the trip feasible.

The journey from Hong Kong to Guangzhou takes you north through Kowloon and the New Territories of HK and into the mainland border city of Shenzhen. There is time to admire Shenzehn's skyscrapers, outlying factories (less admiration) and warehousing (even less) before the delta flatland of the Guangdong countryside opens around our progress.

We ha d travelled through Guang zhou on our way to HK back in November and headed for the legendary (to us, anyway) clay rice pot place for lunch but much to our disappointment it was closed so we consoled ourselves with some very tasty beef noodles (Cost of meal; £1.40)

Guangzhou is one of the most prosperous cities in China. The wealth being generated is reflected in the amount of building work in progress across the city. If you look up you will see multiple high-rise developments that will house future urbanites as they flow in from the rural Chinese interior. To see rapid urbanisation in action, a process that occurred in the West more than 100 years ago, is fascinating. The juxtaposition is at times stark with low-rise traditional Chinese housing and shops on one side of the road and 50 storey skyscrapers on the other.

28/02/10 - Lantau Island - Trapplist Monastery Hike

On a hot (27deg) and misty day (check out the patchy fog in the photo taken on the way to the ferry), we enjoyed a nice hike along the coast of Lantau Island from Discovery Bay to Silver Mine Bay. The journey took us past a Trappist monastery which stands high on the coast of Lantau overlooking the Western Harbour. Again, the views from the top of Tai Shui Hang (the mountain/big hill which boasts said monastery) should have been spectacular, but it was a misty day, as it seems to be regularly at the moment, so we just had to imagine!

27/02/10 - Kowloon Hike: Tseng Lan Shue to Sha Tin Pass
(Wilson Trail Stage 4 - 8.0km - 3hrs)

The previous day we took on stage 4 of the Wilson Trail. The Wilson trail in its entirety runs from the very South of Hong Kong Island to the North of the New Territories near the border with mainland China. The stage that we attempted is described as 'strenuous hiking' in our hiking in HK guide book. It is also described as 'extremely knackering' in my book. It was a good hike though, an atmospheric forested section at the start followed by a climb to the top of One Rise More.

06/03/10 - New Territories Hike: Pak Tam Au to Sai Sha
(MacLehose Trail Stage 3 - 10.2km - 4hrs)

Saturday has officially become hiking day for us. With hundreds of miles of trails criss-crossing Hong Kong's varied terrain there are many hikes from which to choose. Saturday is also mental in Hong Kong as seemingly all 7 million people decide to go shopping at the same time in pretty much the same place. So its nice to escape the throng on the Island and explore the beautiful countryside. This Saturday we took on Stage 3 of the MacLehose trail way out west in the New Territories. There were several climbs, the largest being 399m Kai Kung Shan, once again we were promised 360degree panoramic views of the Sai Kung countryside but the view disappeared into the mist half-way up the mountain. The views were still good and I think we saw about 6 people along the way...

Kung Hei Fat Choi

2010-02-19T20:54:00.001-08:00

Hong Kong 13/02/2010 - 20/02/2010

Happy Chinese New Year! (or Kung Hei Fat Choi!)
The year of the tiger was rung in with fireworks over Victoria Harbor. We had a great vantage-point from the 59th floor, but unfortunately the cloud of smoke produced by the fireworks obstructed the view for most of it :)

During the Lunar New Year weekend we undertook a walk through old parts of Wan Chai, Central and Shueng Wan. We came across an old blue house which apparently still has no running water and which is still visited by night-soil collectors.

The urban hike culminated in a visit to Hong Kong's oldest temple. We followed the tradition to visit a temple and to light incense for good fortune, health and prosperity for the new year. We also got to see a Lion Dance outside the temple.

We also ventured out far far west in the New Territories to explore the second of two heritage trails. We already did the first heritage trail a few weeks back and this was the second of only two heritage trails in Hong Kong. This trail boasts Hong Kong's only ancient pagoda (picture below). Hong Kong Wetland Park also formed part of this urban hike. The Wetland Park has a strange feel with one of Hong Kong's satellite towns overlooking it.

Ma On Shan - Horse Saddle Mountain

2010-02-13T04:06:00.001-08:00

13/02/10 - Lets climb a mountain!

This weekend it's Chinese New Year Holiday here in Hong Kong. Astrid has Monday and Tuesday off work so we thought given we have some recovery time over the holiday we would embark on a more strenuous walk, and hike up one of the highest mountains in Hong Kong. Ma On Shan (702m - Horse Saddle Mountain) is in the New Territories (the part of HK that has the land border with China). Set in Ma On Shan Country Park we were promised epic views into the mainland and the Sai Kung countryside.

Once again the weather intervened, it was a misty day with low clouds threatening rain, so we knew that the views may be limited but we were committed and up for the climb, so we went anyway. After a two hour climb we reached the peak - check out the wind and mist we encountered at the top. Visibility of about 20 metres instead of 20 miles!

On the way down we took a wrong turn and inadvertently added another hour onto the walk, including another 30 min climb, which at that stage wasn't welcome! Our route off the mountain wasn't quite as planned and after 4.5 hours of walking we were in no mood for the pack of feral dogs that greeted us with loud barking as we headed toward civilisation (we waved large sticks at them!). It took approximately an hour to get back onto HK island via bus and train, once back in Causeway Bay we rewarded ourselves with prawn Laksa and the best grilled spicy chicken from our favourite Indonesian joint.

Mount Parker

2010-02-07T00:41:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong 01/02/2010 - 07/02/2010: This week began in exciting fashion as Astrid started her first week of work Hong Kong-style, doing the dash to Macao and back on Monday in order to validate her working visa and then getting used to a new daily routine of life at Goldmann Sachs. After a hectic week and a relaxed Friday evening we thought we would go for a nice walk on Saturday. It turned out to be one of our more epic weekend strolls. Starting at Quarry Bay, we walked to the top of Mount Parker (531m) and back into town via the Tai Tam reservoir and Wong Nei Chung Gap. It was a cloudy and misty day which always threatened rain. By the time we got to the top of the mountain we were in the clouds and engulfed in an eery mist. It was also the land of the giant plants! (Please note that this plant was already uprooted and laying at the side of the path!)

The hike took us over four hours and we were glad to rest our legs once back in Causeway Bay. We rewarded ourselves with noodle-wanton soup and boiled beef from our favourite local noodle shop, the 2min walk from our apartment was as much as our stiff legs could manage! Ultimately we were glad that we decided to walk on the Saturday as Sunday was the wettest day we have experienced so far in Hong Kong, we consoled ourselves with Dim Sum and some movie-action as the rain poured for hour upon hour.

KO LANTA, THAILAND

2010-02-07T00:24:00.000-08:00

Ko Lanta: 23/01/2010 - 31/01/2010

We were delighted to book our first trip away from Hong Kong as it meant that we were to attend Phil and Tara's wedding on Ko Lanta in Thailand. Phil and Tara have spent five years on Ko Lanta managing a diving and underwater photography business, lucky things! It was fitting that the wedding took place just across the road from their home on one of Ko Lanta's many beautiful beaches. The wedding ceremony and reception party, complete with live band and fire twirlers, were held at Narima resort and on their beach, its safe to say a great time was had by all! Well done to Tom for his excellently executed best man duties and of course congratulations to Phil and Tara for their big day!

We stayed in a cool little bungalow at Coral Beach set back from the sandy beach. It was all of a 30 second stroll to reach the hammocks and bamboo huts that sat in the shade of coconut trees on the edge of the beach. Astrid made full use of the islands star masseuse who's 'office' was one of the aforementioned bamboo huts. Not a bad spot!

After the wedding we had 6 days to fully relax and we soon settled into a life of relaxing on the beach in the morning with a couple of refreshing dips in the crystal clear sea, a chilled afternoon in the shade as temperature heated up followed by an awesome sunset. Some delicious Thai food for dinner and a spot socialising with Tom, Phil, Tara and some of the other wedding guests that remained on the island helped add up up to a very enjoyable break. We managed to explore the island by scooter one afternoon, but soon found ourselves back on the beach and in the sea. A boat visit to Ko Haa allowed us to snorkel and spot some wonderful tropical fish and coral. The week flew past and too soon it was time to head back to Hong Kong....

MACAO

2010-02-06T23:57:00.001-08:00

Hong Kong 18/01/2010 - 22/01/2010

A day in Macao. Macao is an hour by boat from Hong Kong and the boats leave every 15 minutes or so. Macao, like Hong Kong, is a former colony which was handed back to China recently and is now, again like Hong Kong a special administrative region of China. Macau was both the first and last European colony in China. Portuguese traders first settled in Macau in the 16th century and subsequently administered the region until the handover on 20 December 1999.

Macao is especially known for gambling - rivaling Las Vegas. Macao is also the most densely populated area in the world. Apart from the glitz a nd glamour and crazy shaped skyscraper hotels/casino's Macao has a lovely old-town with unexpected European/Portuguese architecture, character and charm.

Outlying islands and walled villages

2010-01-17T01:09:00.001-08:00

Hong Kong - 04/01/10 - 17/01/10

Peng Chau (Outlying island: 14/01/10: 2hrs): Is a small outlying island with immense charm. You can walk around it in a couple of hours. The town is very quaint and the best part of the island is the lack of cars- it is so quiet and tranquil! At one point the island was home to the largest match-factory in the south of China.

Cheung Chau (Outlying island: 16/01/10: 2hrs): This is the most densely populated of the outlying islands. It is only 2km long and features a 'mini great wall', which is a coastal walkway around the island. The island also has very cool boulder rocks and a pirate cave you can crawl through!

and here you can see Ian crawling out of the cave:

Leung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail (New Territories: 17/01/10: 2hrs): During the 12th century a Tang Clan man rescued a young girl fleeing from the invading Mongols. She was later married to his son. After peace was restored she informed her husband that she was in fact related to royalty and the daughter of the Emperor. The Emperor looked favourably on the marriage, gave her husband a suitable title and a large estate. Most of the Tangs residents in the New Territories today are descendants from their five sons. The Tang clan established 11 villages, five of them walled:

Lei Yue Mun Village (Kowloon: 09/01/10: 2.5hrs): Lei Yue Mun is the narrowest stretch of Victoria Harbour. Sandwiched between high peaks, it is a natural defensive position and colonial forts and batteries were built on both sides. Lei Yue Mun village, in parts very dilapidated, provides a stark contrast to the towers across the harbour on Hong Kong island. Past the Tin Hau temple and the village is Kowloon's last remaining natural coastline.

Brides Pool & Plover Cove (New Territories: 10/01/10: 3hrs): A lovely walk from along the length of the reservoir. In the 1960's Hong Kong's water shortage was so acute that more innovative solutions were required. The major problem was that no land could be spared to build new reservoirs and so engineers blocked off a sea inlet with a giant dam (2km long), pumped out the trapped seawater and filled it with freshwater from a network of hillside conduits. The audacious plan succeeded and Plover Cove became the world's first 'reservoir-in-the-sea'.

Wan Chai post to High West, Aberdeen & Stanley

2010-01-03T03:11:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong 03/01/10

For the last three days we have been hiking on the island. We started all three urban walks from the old post-office in Wan Chai but ended up in very different parts of the island every time.

Wan Chai to High West (3.5hrs / 450 high-meters): We figured out a way to walk from the old post-office all the way to The Peak via Bowen Road and Old Peak Road. We then walked along the Peak Circle Walk to where the steps go up to High West and this time we had really great 360degree views

Wan Chai to Stanley (3hrs): walking up the hill from the old post-office, past Lover's Rock and a rather horrible section of Wan Chai gap road to Wong Nai Chung reservoir after which it is a level walk along the catch-water all the way to the Stanly Gap section of the Wilson Trail

Wan Chai to Aberdeen (2.5hrs): straight up from the post-office to the Police Museum and then down the other side to Aberdeen

Happy New Year

2009-12-31T19:38:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong 31/12/09-01/01/10

Happy New Year everyone from Hong Kong!
You can watch the count-down (watch the big building closely as it shows the seconds left in the old year) and ensuing fireworks below.

The firework was over in about 5 minutes, and there were no rockets going off anywhere else other than the official fireworks. There were no people drinking and toasting in the New Year, no Vienniese waltz or other kind of dancing. It was the most orderly New Year we have ever been part of - apparently Chinese New Year is where it is all at!

We've seen dead people

2009-12-30T01:12:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong 24/12/09 - 30/12/09

We've been urbaneering Hong Kong over the last few days and have been to the two different ends of the line (MTR to Chai Wan and Tram to Kennedy Town). Our three walks in the last few days took us around twelve cemeteries of at least five different denominations...

Happy Valley used to be a swampy marshland that harboured deadly malarial conditions which claimed many lives of those who settled there in early colonial times. Back then it was supposed to be developed into Hong Kong's main business district, but was put off due to the high death-rate and the valley instead became a burial ground for the dead. The area was previously known as Wong Nai Chung Valley, but was renamed to Happy Valley a common euphemism for cemeteries. Wong Nan Chung was a river that nourished rice-paddies in the area, before the construction of the horse-racing course in 1846. For this, the Wong Nai Chung river was recoursed to Bowrinton Canal and the canal today is covered under Canal road. Happy Valley today is a residential hot spot for expats.

Chai Wan forms the end of the Island line MTR and the end of residential dwellings on the north-east side of Hong Kong Island. In the 18th century this area consisted of small villagea which were replaced in the 1950's by government housing project. Today Chai Wan is comprised of mainly high rise buildings nestled below the range of cemeteries found on Mount Collins.

Wan Chai, a hustling and bustling area in the centre of the island's, literally translated from Cantonese means 'cove'. Amongst new office blocks you can find many small and medium-sized companies and a fabulous street-market which is in danger of being banished as the government proposes new developments. We have captured it here on video and hence preserved it for posterity. Many places in Wan Chai used to be on the waterfront prior to land reclamation and some of the street names (Schooner Street or Ship Street) still remind us of this long by-gone era.

Kennedy Town is at the very western end of Hong Kong Island. It is named after Arthur Edward Kennedy who was the 7th Governor of Hong Kong from 1872 to 1877 and part of old Victoria City. At present only trams and busses go to Kennedy Town (and for many it is a terminal station), but there are plans to extend the MTR.

MERRY CHRISTMAS - FROHE WEIHNACHTEN!

2009-12-23T19:21:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong 24.12.09

We wish you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!
In the video you can see our little sparkling tree and our received xmas cards

Yesterday we went again to watch the symphony of lights and to see all the Hong Kong xmas lights on the Hong Kong skyline. Here is a video of it - unfortunately it is a bit blurry in places, but you get the jist of it :)

Today we will go to the Austrian Restaurant (Mozart Stub'n) for lunch and had a very tasty 3-course dinner:
Starters: Ungarische Gulasch Suppe & Kalter Rossbraten mit Kren

Main: Altwiener Tafelspitz mit Roestkartoffel und Cremespinat & Selchroller mit Semmelknoedel und Sauerkraut

Dessert: Salzburger Nockerl

After that we walked through the Hong Kong Park avery and then stumbled upon the Christmas Concert in the park -which was great!

So, this is our offical xmas foto in t-shirts and that :)

Tomorrow we plan to go hiking with a bottle of champagne during the day and for a turkey xmas dinner in a local restaurant. Courtesy of Marks&Spencer we have stocked up on mince pies, christmas pudding and mulled wine fizz - all of which should make the experience more homely halfway across the world!

Last weekend we did another hike to Jardine's lookout and down to the Tai Tam reservoir. On Tuesday night we went to a really cool japanesy small cocktail bar here in Causeway Bay

Living the highlife

2009-12-18T00:43:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong - 6/12/09 - 18/12/09 - Week 5/6
Last week must have undoubtedly been our most social so far - we went out 3 nights in a row :)! We went to the races in Happy Valley for the first time which was really good fun - Ian even won some money.

The other two nights we went to a couple of gallery openings - free drinks, canape's and art - always a great combination!

Over the weekend we undertook our longest and most strenous hike so far - Section 2 on the MacLehose Trail from Pak Tam Au to Sai Wan Village. It took us around 5 hrs all together including a nice Singapore Style noodle dish in Ham Tin. We really liked the hike, but were slightly dissappoitned with the dirtyness of the Sai Wan beach. As you can only get to the beaches by foot or boat it was certainly remote, but not really unspoiled as the guide-book claims. Maybe it gets all cleaned up in the summer...

Time marches on

2009-12-06T05:19:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong - 14/11/09 - 06/12/09 - Week 2/3/and/4

We start applying for jobs, checking the papers and continue to explore the island.
One day we walked all the way along the waterfront from Causeway Bay to Central. On another day we went up the peak with the tram and walked down. We discovered the zoo and the botanical gardens, as well as an Austrian restaurant.

One weekend we went to Repulse Bay and we continued or quest to discover more beaches when we took the Dragon's Back walk to Shek'O. Our favourite beach so far is near Stanley.

Astrid undertook the first urbaneer mission in Shau Kei Wan which used to be an old fishing village and became a centre for shipbuilding and temples dedicated to deities of the sea and fisherman

This weekend we went to Lantau Island and took the cable car to the buddah and walked down to toward Shek Pik to meet Richard and little bear. We also got to see some water buffalo's.

Yesterday we checked the night market in Temple Street.

Today we went over to Lamma Island and walked all around it and had some lovely seafood

Surfing the couch

2009-12-06T04:46:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong - 7/11/09 - 14/11/09 - Week 1

So, it was finally time to cross over the border and enter into Hong Kong. We were both a bit nervous about what Hong Kong might bring and what will await us. But first it was time for our first ever couch-surfing adventure with Wony (Winnie and Tony). We had a lovely two days with them and some nice meals. They showed us around Kowloon (some of the markets) and took us to this amazing Dim Sum place.

On Sunday 8/11/09 we walked down Nathan Road and for the first time saw Hong Kong's skyline, which was an amazingly breathtaking site. Ian commented that somewhere over there surely there must be a couple of desks for us.

On Monday 9/11/09 we moved into our short-term serviced room in Causeway Bay. It isn't big but has everything we need. The next day we met our first contact Richard Gocher in the Foreign Correspondent Club and the day after we met with Dylis Wong, the only ICAEW person in HK. Both made us feel very welcome and so far we had very positive impressions of HK. We also checked out the Symphony of Lights, am audio visual light show with the HK skline sky-scrapers.

Rice Pots forever

2009-12-06T04:35:00.000-08:00

Guangzhou - 5/11/09 - 7/11/09

Guangzhou was our last stop before Hong Kong. Guangzhou was mainly about shopping for work-related cloths - so we scoured some malls and found some okaish things. The best thing about Guangzhou was a boat ride down the Pearl River and the best rice-post meal we found - it was this tiny place, full of locals with the most yummiest rice-pots cooked right there and then.

The big freeze

2009-11-15T04:27:00.000-08:00

1/11/09 - 4/11/09 - Qingdao, China

We said goodbye to Korea on Saturday afternoon departing Seoul from Incheon port onboard a very nice ferry .

The Royal suite (!) served us well and we arrived after a good night's sleep into Qingdao on Sunday morning. The first thing we noticed was that is was bloomin' freezing in Qingdao, from a pleasant 20+ degrees in Seoul we were plunged into near zero-degree temperatures.

Coats, hats and gloves were adorned inside and out as we found our very cool (chilled in every way) hostel which was the town's converted old observatory situated on a hill in the old town.

We set off to explore Qingdao and immediately found an authentic Sunday market featuring some very tasty steamed buns and some interesting-looking seafood in varying states of life and death.

It was a clear, sunny, cold and windy day as we explored the hilly city. Qingdao is a quite charming city with a quaint and well-preserved old town, bustling port, sandy beach and obviously slightly deranged people swimming in the sea. Astrid urbaneered by flying her kite with the local kite-flyers next to the observatory.

Qingdao is a very prosperous area and this is reflected in the mass of skyscrapers in the new city which hosted the Olympic sailing in 2008. The city boasts the Tsingtao brewery which we visited and also some great seafood retaurants of which we made full use. Overall, we enjoyed our short stay in Qingdao, but were glad to head south to escape the creep of the Chinese winter and the chilly sea-breeze!

Korea Inc.

2009-10-30T02:59:00.000-07:00

23/10/09 - 31/10/09 Seoul, South Korea

From the quiet costal town of Sokcho to the mega-city of Seoul, the contrast was felt immediately. Arriving in Seoul early evening on the inter-city bus we were immediately struck by the size and scale of the Korean capital. Having recently spent time on the other side of the DMZ in North Korea, the development of Seoul along a highly capitalist trajectory was unavoidable. Its quite amazing to compare the economic, political and social development of the two Koreas in the 56 years since the armistice.

Seoul feels in many ways like a very modern 'western' city and so it is quite easy to feel a sense of familiarity and ease. Everything is very clean, functional and modern. There are no 'traditional' areas of Seoul, there aren't any hutong-style areas, everyone lives in modern apartments and everything is seemingly new, which is a bit disappointing. This was confirmed by conversations with locals and by getting on a couple of buses and going to the end of the line at the edge of town and back. The metro is cheap, spotless and easy to use with the airconditioned carriages about double the size of a London tube. Travelling during rush-hour is almost pleasant.

Seoul is also very appointed is you enjoy some outdoors adventures. Surrounded by a mountain range we enjoyed two good day's hiking. The view over Seoul from the mountain was a little murky, as city views in Asia have tended to be due to the pollution levels.

The Koreans are extremely courteous and overtly friendly. They are genuinely interested in having a conversation with you, to practice their English, to find out where you are from and help you as much as possible, whether that means advising you on your metro journey or asissting with ordering/explaining what part of an animal you are about to eat. One such interjection would have been appreciated a few moments before we ordered the ox-intestines! Very chewy.

Despite the apparent fixation with offal, Korean cuisine is superb. The food is amazing whether it be dumpling and noodle soup in Dongdaemun market or a Korean BBQ in Hyewha.

The city has a vibrancy fuelled in part by the large student population and the overall desire to progress as a country. Entwined with this is the Koreans embrace of the western economic ideal whilst also nurturing their traditional social ideal of collective harmony. Given this tradition and desire the tragic nature of Korea's division is exacerbated. We will be extremely interested observers as the story of Korea unfolds.

Thighs and feet of steel on the mountain of never ending steps...

2009-10-20T18:55:00.000-07:00

20/10/09 - Sokcho
10hrs, 23km roundtrip and about 1500 'hoehenmeter' up and down the mountain (Daechongbong Peak/1708m) that consisted almost entirely of steps/stairs of one variety or another...apparently the steps/stairs are a very Korean way of hiking in the mountains...we made it in one day, however, by the end we were glad to be back on the bottom where we started and on the bus home. The scenery (autumn colours) was brilliant! It was really windy most of the way up, but especially on the top - hence the photo's where we both clutch onto the 'gipfel-kreuz' at the very top :)
The bimbibab once we got back to Sokcho was well deserved.

21 October 09 - Sokcho
Today we went to a spa (Cheoksan Hot Spring Resort) - seperate areas for men and women, but a brilliant experience being the only westerners amongst all Koreans doing their thing in the bath-house. Let's hope the Cheoksan hot springs water which is known to be beneficial for people with skin diseases, eye diseases, gastroenteric disorders, and neuralgia, is also good for some sore muscles!

2009-10-19T02:48:00.000-07:00

19/10/09 - Sokcho

Our first day in the national park (Seoraksan). We walked up for a bit as we had time to spare before our cable car was due to leave for one of the peaks (Mt Gwongeumseong). The view from up there was great and it was extremly windy up there! Tomorrow we are actually walking up somewhere and we will be eating the dried fish we bought at the market today - let's hope its nice :)

From what we have seen so far - South Korea is very different to the North, harldy surprising as it is the fourth largest economy in Asia...

2009-10-18T03:41:00.000-07:00

18/10/09 - Sokcho (South Korea)

we waved good bye to Vladivostok yesterday afternoon and embraced the waves of the East Sea (aka Sea of Japan). It was a rather noisy night with not much sleep and Astrid was quite glad to be back on stable dry land...
...tomorrow we are off to explore the Seoraksan National Park. We are really looking forward to some hiking and beautiful sceneray after quite a hectic week travelling. Funny to think that we did a big loop out of Pyong Yang (DPRK) to Harbin (China) and down to Vladivostok (Russia) and then by ferry to Sokcho (South Korea) and are actually not that far away from where we started :)

End of the line.

2009-10-16T01:44:00.000-07:00

16/10/09 - Vladivostok

Only open to tourists since 1992 due to the Russian Navy's Pacific fleet being stationed here. In Vladivostok we are currently closer to San Francisco (8,400km) than to Moscow (9,302km)! It feels a bit strange to Astrid being in a place that she decided to visit when she learned about the transibirian railway in school 15 years or so ago.

We urbaneered by getting on a random tram (#6) and found ourselves on top of one of the hills. We like Vladivostok with its fresh sea-air and character provided by its slightly tired art noveau architecture. It also boasts nice cafes, cake and coffee :)

Due to unforseen circumstances (cancelled ferry) our next stop is South Korea, rather than Japan, and the ferry (hopefully) leaves tomorrow...

Harbin

2009-10-16T01:39:00.000-07:00

11/10/09 - 14/10/09

Urbaneer Ode to Harbin:
Harbin Oh Harbin harbering gloom
Harbin Oh Harbin harberer of doom
filthy, dirty, manky
best to wave good bye with a hanky

this is us smiling as we are leaving!

DPRK

2009-10-16T01:38:00.000-07:00

3/10/09 - 11/10/09 DPRK

We were treated like VIP's in the DPRK - we dined in the nicest restaurants and were staying in the best hotels (incl. a spa hotel originally only for officials). We saw some of the worlds most impressive monuments, such as the worlds biggest arch (Triumphant Return arch is 10m higher than the Paris' Arc de Triomphe), the worlds highest stone tower (Juche-Tower) and we got to ride on the worlds deepest metro (110m deep). Even though we only got to see 2 of the fantastically designed stations (Glory & Revival/Revitalization), we made it to the end of the line and can therefore legitimatley say that we urbaneered Pyongyang! We were also privileged to be invited to see a childrens home, a kindergarden and a middle-school. The DPRK education system is excellent with 11 years of compulsory schooling freely provided by the state. We also learned a lot about Kim Il Sung, founder of the nation and sun of the the 21st century. Our guides were fantastic, very knowledgeable and genuinely lovely people who took great care of us and made our trip very enjoyable.

We also visited many museums and monuments of relevance to the nations history and the life of Kim Il Sung. We were very fortunate to see an Arirang, the worlds largest mass gymnastics performance with 100,000 performers. We had a fantastic time in Pyongyang and the DPRK.

This article in the Guardian describes a similar DPRK tourist experience to ours, although we traveled with a different company, Regent Travel, based in Bristol.

They seeded the clouds...umdena ha

2009-10-16T01:21:00.000-07:00

Beijing - 3/10/09

We got our Russian Visa in a super speedy 1.5hrs!

The air quality in Beijing was really poor and murky when we arrived and the town was in full swing for the 60 anniversary celebrations. Flowers were going up everywhere and huge tracts of Tienaman square were closed off. We got to see the whole parade and celebrations live on telly for 4 hours...and miraculously the weather was bright sunshine for the celebrations! Ian thinks they seeded the clouds...

We urbaneered through Beijing by strolling along and getting ourselves lost in one the Hutong areas. We spotted some Gargoyles and eventually made it to the White Pagoda, which almost seemlesly blended into the background. We also urbaneered in the art-district (Factory 798 Art Zone) by cheekily employing some smurfs and playing with some of the out-door and in-door exhibits. We managed to get the correct bus to and from the art-zone first time round!

We ate lots of Hotpots and generally had a very relaxing time in Bejing - our five days here went really quickly. Off to fly Air Koryo to North Korea in a bit.

A cloud of dust...

2009-10-16T01:08:00.000-07:00

28/09/09 - Beijing

We now have a good old fashioned tale to tell from our return journey from the nomadic families in Mongolia. There is no feeling quite like being left stranded at a bus station without the tickets you need for your bus and the promised local representative with said tickets nowhere to be seen, being denied access to this bus and then watching helplessly as the bus on which you are supposed to be going back 'home' to Ulanbataar disappears off in a cloud of dust in to the evening sun.

After five hours of waiting at the 'bus station' which resembled more of a road-side collection of shacks, and being promised non-existent 'small cars' we finally boarded a 'small bus' (a lethal death trap of a vehicle) and were on our way to UB. A tyre blow-out, a 360 degree spin on the off-road section in bewteen the paved main road, some swerving and some napping by the driver, we finally arrived back in UB at 4am. What should have been 4 hours turned into 12!

Mongolia as left us with mixed emotions. It is a beautiful country with stunning scenery and freidnly people. Seeing how basically and sustainably the nomadic families live in their gers (at least family one) has been quite humbling. Never shared a ger with six nomads and four other travellers before. :) The trips on horse and camel-back were quite entertaining but sometimes felt a bit random. There was a lot hanging around in the gers drinking tea.

We now have arrived in Beijing (apparently today in Confusicious' birthday) and we will be getting our Russian visas sorted tomorrow hopefully. Facebook and Blogger are banned at the moment, so this update will be wee-bit out of date by the time it goes up.

2009-09-28T23:33:00.001-07:00

urbaneered ulan bator & now in bejing. facebook+blogs banned so no updates for a while

mixed feelings - eco adventure with near death experiences

2009-09-26T06:13:00.000-07:00

26/09/09 Ulan Bator - we spent the last 4 days in the Mongolian countryside and have mixed feelings about our experience. The landscape was fantastic, living with the family was interesting, the food basic & repetitive and the journey back turned into a bit of a nightmare. But we lived to tell the tale...
...very tired now, so more to follow when we get to Beijing and have more time to write and upload photo's. For now it is packing and getting ready for saying good bye to Mongolia tomorrow morning and catching the overnight train to Beijing...

Ulaan Bataar has been urbaneered!

2009-09-21T05:44:00.000-07:00

21/09/09 UB - a very productive day with 4 day Ger-to-Ger eco tourism community travel routes. Tomorrow morning we shall be off at 7am to catch a local bus at 8am. The bus will take us to the Bulgan province from where we will be taken in a jeep to the first Ger. There we will be staying with Mr. Byambatoghtoh Family for one night (and apparently his second son is getting married, so we will get to see a wedding as well - extra bonus!). The day after that we will trekking by horse and ox-cart to Mr. Otgonbaya's Family where we will spend th second night. On day three we will be on horses again off to the next family of Mr. Idertsogt where we will spend the last night before heading back the 6 hour journey to Ulan Bator.

We also managed to send all our post-cards today! AND we must have been the first but hopefully not the last who urbaneered in Ulan Bataar! Smurfs have been active and the aries starmap tool was employed. We saw some real off the beaten track areas of UB full of abject poverty, which reminded us of slums you can see on television. Even though a mile down the road brand new glass sky-scrapers are appearing, most of the city is very poor. Lets hope the trickle down effect will have an impact on the areas we saw today...

Dear-devil lantern smurf on wire slide in down-town UB. Smurfette sun-bathing on construction site before windowshopping in UB central.

Calm before the storm?

2009-09-20T04:24:00.000-07:00

20/09/09 - Ulaanbataar

We arrived in UB this morning (Sunday) at around 7.30am after five nights and four full days (about 100 hours) aboard the Trans-Siberian #004 bound for Beijing. We loved the train and the journey. We loved every minute on the train, mostly in our cosy cabin, sometimes dashing onto the station platforms to grab some home-cooked food from the waiting Babushkas and occasionally in the Russian diner car (wonderful 60s kitsch - technical problem with Astrid's camera prevents a picture of the lime green, brown and white 60s-styled diner with breakfast bar). Over the course of the journey (6,600km) our cosy cabin remained a mostly warm and comfortable constant whilst the environment outside the train slowly morphed from a warm balmy evening in Moscow, through a increasingly chilly Russian countryside/birch forests and onto a decidedly cold siberian autumn/winter, culminating in more or less continuous snow from the Russian/Mongolian border through to Ulanbataar. The freezing sleet outside the train as we waited 5 hours at the border was particularly memorable.

After the urbane St.Petersburg, imposing Moscow and the tranquility of the train, Ulanbataar at around 5 degrees feels cold and slightly surreal with the potted roads and muddied and rubble-strewn 'pavements' demonstrating the effects of the blizzard and subsequent and ongoing thaw, huge puddle/lakes, crumbling buildings and 70s style artefacts and street-lighting fixtures, a bizarre memorial to the Beatles in the central sqaure, a half-empty State Department Store and a general weather-beaten feel that is unsuprising given the extremes in weather that UB experiences.

Unfortunately due to the aforementioned blizzards a lot of the roads out of UB are impasable which means we must play a waiting game to see when we can get out of the capital and enjoy the Mongolian countryside and nomadic lifestyle. Tomorrow will be an urbaneering day and hopefully a postal day as we finally send our accumulated postcards.

FUNKSTILLE

2009-09-15T00:30:00.000-07:00

15/09/09 Final day in Moskow today (Kremlin here we come) before we board the Transiberian in the evening. We will get to Ulan Bator on the 20th. We then plan to stay a week in Mogolia for trekking etc, before we head further to Beijing where we will get to on th 28th. Dependent on internet availability in Mongolia this might be the last blog for a while...
...but we managed to upload our final fotos of Moscow before we leave...great time-management that is :) :)

Why are we the only people on the train?

2009-09-14T09:14:00.000-07:00

14/09/09 The sun shone on Moscow today as we firstly did some doing and headed to the North of the city to pick up our Trans-siberian tickets. We love the Moscow Metro, but it did fool us at one point....

Tickets bagged we headed towards the Ostankino TV Tower to check out the view at 337m. This took us to the entrance of the main botannical gardens and past the Kosmos hotel (probably contains dark matter), the museum of Cosmology (big statue of a 60s socialist rocket - above) and onto the monorail (apparently the mayor's pet project).Unfortunately the TV Tower was closed, but we did our best to imagine the view....

Today we saw the future of pharmaceautical retailing in one of the metro stations.

We also went to Gorky Park. Thankfully the re wasn't a wind of change, nor candles, nor big 80s perms.. But there was a whiff of hot dogs and candyfloss from the big fun fair and a nice al-fresco Uzbek restaurant. To get to Gorky park you can walk through the sculpture park, where we bumped into some familiar friends.

Stalin's heritage

2009-09-13T10:25:00.000-07:00

13/09/09 After watching a great documentary on BBC Worldservice about diversity in the boardroom and Norway's law of 40% quota of women on boards we enjoyed a nice coffee before heading towards the river for another boat-trip.

Stalin Skyscapers, aka Seven Sisters, are arguably Moscow's most impressive architectural highlight, next to its superb underground stat ions (I am glad someone went and took proper photo's of the stations) and the area around the Kremlin...and look who we found amongst the crowds on the red square - Papa Smurf still looking for his fellow smurfs. We also happened to be here and bump into some of the Moscow International Peace Marathon runners

If you are interested in urbaneering using the technique "undergr ound ove rgro und" than this is the perfect website to help you wi th it!

According to wikipedia Moscow lost 52 of its formerly 74 billionnairs during the recent recession and thereby loosing its top spot of cities with billionaires ahead of New York - now I wonder how diverese their corporate boardrooms are (or businesses in Russia in general)

big brother is watching you

2009-09-12T09:54:00.000-07:00

12/09/09 overnight train pulls into Moskow at 8am; torrential rain; we are the last to get off the train

Finding the hostel is a challenge, but we get there in the end and have a room with private internet!

After a long snooze, we urbaneer using the "inside out" and "end of the line" technique - meaning we hop on an underground train and work our way out to the end of the line. we chose line 2 as it had some of the stations on that were recommended to us in St. Petersburg (and also our hostel happens to be near by - very handy!). The stations are amazing and as far as undergrounds go and the ones I have been to Moskow does have the prettiest stations [and we only saw one line so far]!!!

urbaneering here, however, has a feel of 1984 with big brother watching you constantly. The amount of uniformed men on the platforms, stations and streets is quite intimidating. Eight police man in a row on a platform looking at you actually make you feel less safe, particularly, as all guidebooks warn you of corrupt police who are looking to fine you. Taking pictures of the beautiful stations, therefore, almost has a criminal feel....the end of line #2 is also less than pretty.

Our impressions of Moskow so far really make you reflect and appreciate the freedoms we in the 'west' take for granted, such as the freedom to express ourselves, to freely move about and be left to go about your business without interference or physical surveillance by 'the state'. Police here can stop you at any time to check if your papers are in order and apparently Russians get checked all the time as well (and this is now, can't imagine what it must have been like during communism!)...