just one little fishy

Gallery: morocco

kezza — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 23:06:00 GMT

Gallery: Misc

kezza — Tue, 2 Jan 2007 23:27:00 GMT

Hogmanay

kezza — Tue, 2 Jan 2007 15:40:00 GMT

Well, the Hogmanay that wasn't actually.

The street party in the centre of Edinburgh was cancelled due to "adverse weather conditions" (the general theme of my holiday...), being 60+ mph winds, rain and bitter temps. Aside from that (and except for the 15 mins eleven of us spent stuck in a lift on the way to a house party - which will learn us for trying to put eleven people in a tiny lift) it was a brilliant NYE.

Some nineteen NZers piled into Rach & John's flat in Leith in Edinburgh, and we all spent a fantastic couple of days between there, the Waterline pub across the road, and some of their mates place round the corner. Plenty of whisky was drunk (not by me, g & t's as ever), haggis was eaten (surprisingly delicious), a nude swim in the Leith at midnight was undertaken (again, not by me, good sense reigned despite some initial enthusiasm for the idea), and among other highlights (all food related!) were lunch with Anne on NY Eve, Rach's bacon and eggs at 4am, and the Turkish mezzes for a late lunch on New Years Day.

In all, an excellent time was had, and the train trip was extremely relaxing after the disruptive flights (to top it all off, Lufthansa left my bag in Frankfurt on the way back, so I had 15kg of dirty laundry couriered to me in Edinburgh!). Highly recommended.

Gallery: Russian Christmas

kezza — Tue, 2 Jan 2007 11:48:00 GMT

St Petes ... again

kezza — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 07:31:00 GMT

Back in this beautiful city ... cold out there tho. My overnight train was uneventful, if a little too warm, but a cabin with meals included in the ticket price (yoghurt and bread good, not so keen on miscellaneous pate and salami) and I had nice cabin-mates who could even say a few words in English.

Its about 7.30am, so just wandered in here out of the cold. Time for a coffee perhaps. Rest of time in Moscow was great, snowed frequently, went iceskating in Red Square (really stunning), wandered about the 'Garden of Fallen Idols' where they have dragged many of the statues of the Communist leaders plus a few more modern sculptures depicting suffering under communism, and in WWII.

The Armoury at the Kremlin remains a definite highlight - there was one carriage there bigger than an average minivan - a room on a sledge basically, and needed a team of 23 horses to drag it. Very opulent dresses and jewels too, although some of the art was a bit tacky.

The other major highlight was St Basle's cathedral in Red Square - tiny little church but incredible frescoes inside.

Today I'm off to the Hermitage, Cathedral of the Spilled Blood, and whatever else I can squeeze in before my flight this evening ...

Need coffee now.

Vodka, baboushka and -8 celsius!

kezza — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 21:45:00 GMT

I got a blink-and-you-miss it tour of St Petes thanks to Roman, the "On the Go" tours manager, driving around the heart of the city, so I have seen the outside of the Hermitage, St Isaacs cathedral, cathedral of spilt blood, some (now very salubrious) Stalin era apartments, and Nevskij Praspekt - the main street with some very upmarket stores. Overall, my impression was that of a very European city, very modern, clean and western. Around 5pm I met up with Kimbo, Emma, Zoe, Adele and the rest of our group and hopped on a train for Pskov. Five hours of drinking later (and some exceedingly embarrassing behaviour by a few of our group, say no more) we arrived in Pskov, a small-ish country city. Very satellite Soviet, wide streets and neon lights and a feeling of bleakness. I suddenly understood why Chinese rural cities look the way they do, and where Chinese get their very odd impression of the West from! On Christmas Eve day we went for a wonderful banya (Russian sauna) and beat each other with bunches of birch leaves and twigs (more relaxing than it sounds), running between the steam room and throwing buckets of icy water over each other outdoors. They're an unusual bunch, the Russians. We then spent a while tripping about the city looking at churches and other notable buildings - I like the architecture, the "harmony in asymmetry" and the whitewashed plaster. The landscape is flat and monotonous in winter with the bare trees - very bleak. In the evening we had dinner (fantastic food - salads for starters, veal for mains, extraordinary amounts of vodka!) and played games, Santa arrived with a sackful of presents (some more socks for me - big woollen ones, they're sooo beautiful and cosy!) and generally everyone got very boozed, and the baboushka (older women who do the menial jobs - and sometimes pointless jobs, like sitting on each floor of the hotel looking after room keys - and are on the whole marked by their unpleasant temperament and sour expressions) were surprisingly low-key about us running around the place. Once I can put photos up, I'll post one of the phone in our room. It was a beaut yellow dial job, looked like it had walked straight out of 1962 - I loved it! Christmas Day was therefore a bit of a slow start. The girls and I exchanged a few small pressies (socks that say 'always late but worth the wait'. I like to think so. And little tacky xmas earrings etc!) and then we headed out to look around the Pskov countryside - the Pechory monastery and an ancient fortress. I like the older buildings, they remind me of story-book gingerbread houses, the doorsteps and window sills are all thick and a little misshapen! And the onion shaped domes on top are just so Russian - its wonderful to be somewhere so utterly foreign! After all that we hopped on an overnight train to Moscow - the 4 bed cabins were very clean and comfortable. Moscow is much colder (minus 8-ish), IT HAS SNOW!!! and much more Russian than St Petes, although it is also very modernised and western - there's no shortage of McDonalds and KFC etc. We spent the day wandering about the city (in 5 layers of thermals and my down jacket!) and looking inside the Kremlin and the amoury which houses all the treasures from Tsarist Russia which need more time to describe than I have left right now - absolutely wonderful carriages, dresses, jewels, thrones, everything! Tomorrow we're off to the garden of "fallen idols" and later on we'll go iceskating in Red Square ... Russia is fantastic!

Heathrow Travel Chaos

kezza — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 15:00:00 GMT

The British media generally lack imagination. Every serial murderer is dubbed the someplace-shire ripper. Politians never have affairs, only steamy romps. And when Heathrow is virtually closed by fog, it is nothing short of "travel chaos" and the TV breakfast shows, in particular, have delighted in crossing live to the scene - temporary marquees were set up outside to prevent overcrowding in the terminal, heated and with free cups of tea and packets of crisps, populated by subdued queues of holiday makers all either studiously ignoring each other and maintaining that most valued of British things, privacy, or indulging in the second most favoured past-time (after queueing) - whinging bitterly about transport screw ups. It tends to happen most often on the tube, but British Airways took a fair bit of flak about the fog. Now I understand that most of the cancelled flights were domestic, so perhaps I didn't see the worst of it, but it seemed to me that BA did a pretty extraordinary job in funnelling thousands of people through one of the busiest airports in the world at the busiest time of the year. Our flight (Lufthansa, to St Petersburg via Frankfurt) was delayed in boarding by 1.5 hours, and we spent a further 1.5 hours sitting on the plane waiting for clearance, but at least we did leave, and we certainly weren't delayed as badly as many shorter Europe-bound flights. It meant that I missed my connection in Frankfurt (although I hoped they might be able to rebook me that evening and went tearing through Frankfurt airport, took the wrong escalator, went to run back up it, tripped, and put a couple of nasty elevator-ridge shaped holes in my knees, ankles and hands). Anyway, Lufthansa weren't flying again until the morning, so I ended up overnight in a fairly basic airport hotel, but with all meals included which was kind of them, and I flew into St Petes at last around 2pm on 23 December to join the rest of my tour group some 3 days late - good to be here at last!

Christmas is coming!

kezza — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 16:09:00 GMT

The Christmas trees are up on each office floor now and very prettily decorated with lights giving off a cosy glow when its dark at 4pm!

We had the joint office party last Friday (there are 2 offices in London) at Claridges Hotel - I've put lots of photos from the night in the UK album now, along with a couple from our iceskating trip last week. Great night was had by all! Best of all, the next morning a parcel of Xmas treats arrived from home - how Christmassy!!

Tomorrow I am off to see a Queen tribute musical, and then we have another office party (just us this time), and I go to Russia next week! Will put heaps more photos up after that trip ...

That time again

kezza — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 10:00:00 GMT

It's been nearly a year, time to dust off the old journal and post some more adventures. Unfortunately, life in London boasts few adventures of the travel variety, although there are plans afoot for a Russian Christmas, and also a trip to the Continent for the Christmas markets in the pipeline.

The Christmas lights are already lit up on Oxford and Regent Streets, and all the shops are decked out and have been trilling carols since late October. Despite the transparent commercialism, the thought of a cold Christmas is enough to put the gloss back on the celebration for me - ice skating at Somerset House, mulled wine, Christmas markets, and the spectacular window displays at Selfridges and Debenhams.

But for now, work is keeping me busy (I'm working as a legal assistant for Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, international commercial arbitration and a bit of litigation), its getting chilly and its dark by 4.45pm. It's not so bad when there are holidays to look forward to, but the thought of a cold January is a bit depressing. Luckily there are about a dozen other assistants and interns working here from all over Europe who feel the same, so we have plenty of plans for ice skating, cocktails at Selfridges, foreign film nights, and general eating and drinking in a manner befitting the festive season!

Gallery: UK

kezza — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:58:00 GMT

Zai Jian Beijing

kezza — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 12:56:00 GMT

I've spent the last few days on a bit of an eclectic tour of Beijing owing to extreme coldness - today and yesterday have been marginally warmer, which is great as I've lost my third pair of gloves so far this winter, and my hat also!

The Forbidden City was huge and impressive (I especially enjoyed the areas decorated with empress Ci Xi's things - beautiful silks and paintings and pottery etc, what a life!), the Temple of Heaven Park is not to be missed - it was great to see the elderly population out playing chess and dancing and singing in what can otherwise be a very businesslike city, the Summer Palace was also very impressive, although doing a circuit of the entire perimeter got a bit cold, so I took a shortcut across the frozen lake!, and the Tibetan Buddhist temple Yong Ge is peaceful and colourful and a fantastic contrast to all of the Chinese temples I've been to. The National Museum was disappointingly silent on the liberation of China, although its lifesize wax model of Mao is kinda cool! I also went to see Mao's mausoleum and I'd put money on that being a wax figurine too!! Three days (total) has been a little short to do Beijing justice, and according to the magazines for foreigners there is a flourishing arts scene that I'd love to have had the time to see - real stuff, not Beijing opera shows for tourists! So I hope to be back one day...

David's friend Mr Xi met me yesterday to give me my air ticket - he deserves a special mention because he was so helpful, even calling the airline of his own accord to negotiate a cheaper price for me - how kind! So I'm now in possession of my ticket out of the country, which is a relief, and I catch a flight at 6pm this afternoon. Well, China, it's been a ball! I'm looking forward to a return to the land of the long white cloud, family, friends, summer, and instant literacy!!

But for now, zai jian (good bye) and Merry Christmas!

Financials etc

kezza — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 12:43:00 GMT

Here are a few details about transport, departure times and costs from the trip from Korla to Beijing - I found that much of the info in the guidebooks was out of date. The prices are for the low season, and are in RMB, and the times are correct as at 23 December 2005. Just doing my little bit to help ...

Jiayuguan

Train from Korla 190 hard sleeper, 24 hours, departs 12 midday

Buses to Dunhuang run 3x daily (8.30, 11.30, 16.30) so I guess they run as frequently in the opposite direction. Sleeper bus to Lanzhou departs 14.30.

Accom. Xiongguan Hotel 50 for 3-bed dorm but NO shower

Internet 4/hour diagonally opposite the Jiayuguan Hotel (15 min walk from Xiongguan) where staff can also book train tickets - almost essential!

Sights - Overhanging Wall 21, Fort 60.

Xi'an

Train from Jiayuguan ??! 144 from Lanzhou (hard sleeper). 24 hours whole trip, 2x daily, 1068 departs 12.20, 1044 depart 13.50

Accom. plenty of YHA's in Xi'an (I don't recommend Flats of Renmin Hotel) - try http://www.travellerspoint.com/budget-accommodation-en-ci-1394.html

Sights Bell Tower 15, South Gate 40, Famen Si 32, Terracotta Warriors 65, Qin's Tomb 25, Big Goose Pagoda 20, Lin Tong museum 24

Beijing

Train from Xi'an 274 hard sleeper, 13.5 hours, last departure daily 21.15

Accom. Downtown Backpackers Accommodation is highly recommended, 50 for 8-bed dorm + own shower, on hutong between Gulou Dongdajie and Di'anmen Dongdajie in centre of town

Internet 10/hour at Downtown

Sights Forbidden City 40 + 40 audioguide + 10 eastern complex, Yong Ge 25, National Museum 30, TEmple of Heaven 30, Summer Palace 20

Terracotta Warriors

kezza — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:26:00 GMT

I have just arrived in Beijing and will go to see the Forbidden City in a moment, but before I do ...

Spent yesterday in Xi'an on the 'Eastern day trip' to see the Terracotta Army. It was amazing, so big, and so ancient. The site is enormous, with three pits full of warriors that have been partially excavated. They are all life-size, but they aren't too intimidating as you are looking down at them from a platform around the edge of each gigantic hall - the size of a basketball stadium or similar. Some of the pits that haven't yet been excavated are thought to contain chariots, and there are replica chariots at the associated museums to give an idea of the sheer scale of it all. It was very very cool (literally, too, each hall was colder than outside, so likely sub-zero!). On a grisly note, there are also the remains of many workers who were sealed inside on completion of the complex to ensure secrecy - a ploy which worked well as no-one knew anything about it all until a peasant farmer stumbled on it all when drilling a well in 1974. He was on site (well, we're told its him!) for us to meet, not a particularly happy looking chap, looked a bit as if he wished the whole thing would just go away, and wouldn't say hello or sign an autograph for less than Y5 ($1)!!

Also saw a pagoda, the tomb of the emperor which the Army guard - a couple of kilometres away, which gives some idea of the size of this complex, and many museums - there are incredible numbers of relics of pottery, bronzeware, glassware, silk, coins etc, and the ones from the Tang Dynasty (thought of as the "high point" of Chinese civilisation) are the most impressive for their craftsmanship and scale - of course, they would be grandious as the wares were used by the royal family not the everyday people.

Got the last train to Beijing at 9pm yesterday after a bit of souvenir shopping, and arrived at 11am this morning, so now its time for the Forbidden City ....

Xi'an

kezza — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 20:32:00 GMT

Well, I survived the train - managed to upgrade to a hard sleeper in Lanzhou, 12 hours into the journey after crouching on my backpack in the aisle being stared at, tripped over and peed on (almost) by an infant (and its mother was encouraging it to pee in the aisle too!). It was interesting to see how the other half lives (and those who can afford the train are no doubt wealthier than a significant percentage of rural Chinese) but I was thrilled to be back in a sleeper.

Xi'an isn't so cold as further north, and spent what was left of yesterday afternoon wandernig around the city centre looking at an ancient Bell Tower, climbing on the walls of the city, and wandering around the Muslim Quarter for dinner. The Muslim area is a such an anomaly in this otherwise modern neon-lit city - I even found bamyen (sp?) for dinner - mmm!

Today I have been out to see numerous museums at the sites of ancient tombs, which has been fascinating but its been a long day - the Famen Temple (home to one of the fingerbones of Buddha) was the best site I saw all day with a brilliant museum. Tomorrow I am off to see the Terracotta Warriors with three people from Hong Kong I met today - quite handy having bilingual friends, we have arranged the hire of a minivan and the rest of the days details are up to us!

I had planned to write a more descriptive account of the tombs and Xi'an in general, but I think I've passively smoked enough cigarettes to poison a small elephant in the last 15 minutes and I'm getting hungry and I also need to phone the man in Beijing who has my flight ticket home (to any of you in Korla, please drop me an email if you have heard anything from David on this matter - I'm just assuming everything is A-OK). So I'll write something a bit more interesting once I'm in Beijing ...

Jiayuguan

kezza — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 12:31:00 GMT

I posted an article yesterday about Jiayuguan which seems to have disappeared ... perhaps it's just this computer, in which case my apologies for repeating myself.

Jiayuguan is fairly industrial and your typical Chinese town - white tiled buildings and red tiled footpaths etc. The train from Korla was exceedingly cold, slept fully clothed plus gloves and hat under a duvet!

I spent yesterday afternoon at the Jiayuguan Fort and the Overhanging Wall, the most western part of the Wall which snakes away up a hill. Its was awesome to see it - its been reconstructed a bit and the parts on the flat are a bit disappointing, but up higher on the hill it feels much more real and has brilliant views. The very top watchtower was disintegrating and you can't go inside it, so I hopped over the Wall and scampered up some scree (making the most of my insurance) to see what was beyond it - the Wall stops there, and I felt I could imagine how the ancient Chinese garrisons would have felt looking out over those barren ridges at the West - it's a very lonely place.

The Fort was impressive and totally reconstructed, but it had less of the feeling of being on the border between ancient China and the rest of the world (out the back were people hawking camel rides on some pretty cold and reluctant-looking camels). Still, the doors to the fort, the temple, and the outdoor theatre were all beautifully decorated and everything looked picturesque covered in snow, and the associated museum was well worth a look.

Yesterday evening I spent at a very average swimming pool (mainly so that I could have a shower!) and had an even more average bowl of noodles. I went looking for another museum about the Wall this morning but failed and have returned to the warmth and 2nd hand smoke in the net cafe. At the train station the clerk spoke a little bit of English and explained that the only tickets to Xi'an today are standing (as in no seat, no sleeper, standing up for 26 hours), and maybe I am crazy but I decided to buy one anyway - I tried to buy a ticket yesterday but they wouldn't sell me one and said to come back today. Also, my phone no longer knows which network its on, so I couldn't call anyone to help me. So I am hoping that maybe I can upgrade my ticket onboard, or otherwise this will be a test of endurance and the money I have saved on this ticket can go towards an extremely comfy room in Xi'an! Anyway, I will do a Heidi (come on, you remember Johanna Spyri's book about the girl from the Alps who couldn't afford a suitcase and had to wear all her clothes to travel!) and wear as many warm clothes as I can, which is going to make bending difficult but then it looks like not too much of that is going to be required anyway. You can rest assured that my hair is in pigtail plaits for the occasion ...

Guess where I am now ...

kezza — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 14:56:00 GMT

"The man who travels alone can start today, but he who travels with another must
wait until the other is ready." - Henry David Thoreau ...

Fortunately for Thoreau, he never had to deal with the Chinese Police Security Bureau ... I am still in Korla, and plan now to get the train tomorrow at midday for Dunhuang. I imagine my itinerary will be steadily pared down the further east I get, but I will hopefully still see the Terracotta Army at Xi'an, and spend a few days in Beijing.

My passport was returned to me yesterday around 4.30pm. The visa was valid for 10 days, expiring 22 December. My flight leaves Beijing on 23 December. The PSB offered to call the airline to have the flight changed, but were otherwise unmoved. They asked us to wait (that's me and David, my boss), which we did for about an hour and half, with various policemen returning at intervals to say nothing could be done, then something could be done, then something could be done within 20 minutes, which stretched into 45 minutes, and finally something could definitely be done in the morning. We returned this morning, and a kind Uighur policeman asked if I'd like a 3 month extension on the visa! At last, I have my passport back and am in possession of a visa until Christmas day, by which time I should be well out of China (... well, unless I am still in Korla waiting on a train).

There are no train tickets to be had out of Korla today - apparently all the workers are on the move today, bound for where I don't know. I have also braved the bus station, in the hope of a ticket as far as Hami (and from there, another bus or a train to Dunhuang), but couldn't get any further than Turpan today by bus or taxi, so I have decided to stay put for one more night and avoid the hassles of more bus stations and taxi drivers with my limited Chinese.

So thats it ... tomorrow I am off ...

Ah, Chinese bureacracy

kezza — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 13:06:00 GMT

Well, I am still here in Korla, still anxiously awaiting the return of my passport with 15 day visa to enable me to get outta here. The official reason is that there is some new and special kind of paper on which all visas must now be printed, and that the Korla Police Bureau is awaiting supplies of said paper from Urumqi. Its roughly a 10-hour train trip from Urumqi to Korla, but this paper seems to be taking the scenic route, five days and counting. Well, I suppose it is good policy, if you have to lie, to stick with the original lie. Or perhaps I am just more cynical in sub-zero temperatures. In any event, I am told that my passport will be returned to me this afternoon, which means I'll catch the midday train to Dunhuang tomorrow - the itinerary will likely undergo some finetuning along the way as I hope to make it to Beijing by the morning of 22 December at the latest.

Walking backwards into the future

kezza — Thu, 8 Dec 2005 19:58:00 GMT

This little fishy is about to do everything backwards - a journey to the east from the farflung province of Xinjiang to the metropolis of Beijing and then back to the western world! The aim - to get to Beijing in time to fly home for Christmas. The method - China's efficient rail service. Fifteen days, five stops, beginning this weekend ....

My good friend the railway man (better known as Chen Dunzhou!) has offered to help me out with tickets, but apparently a one-size-fits-all to get me all the way to Beijing is proving elusive. My planned stops include Jiayuguan (to view the most western portion of the Great Wall), Tianshui (there is a fine mountain there with ancient Buddhist art), Xi'an (the Terracotta Army), Luoyang (caves with more ancient art, and temples abound) and finally, Beijing.