Reflections

Now I've had a few days to reflect on what I've been doing during the second half of this year I just wanted share with you what I've learnt because it has been a life changing experience for me. There are things that I have done during this journey that I never really dreamed of doing 2 or 3 years ago. 3 years ago I had only ever used a bicycle once previously (in 1984 when hiring a bike to travel to the Valley of the Kings in Luxor Egypt).

 

It all started really 3 1/2 years ago when I changed positions at work from one which entailed some physical work to a desk job. I quickly realised that I needed to do some extra physical activity if I wanted to maintain good health so seeing a couple of fellow Express Data employees cycling to work from near our place I decided that maybe that was a good way to get some exercise.

 

3 years ago I had doubts about my ability to cycle the 11kms to work and even did a practice run on the weekend before I tried it.  And now to think that I've cycled 400kms in 7 days in some difficult conditions I now realise that you can achieve a lot with some planning and sheer determination. I'm also fortunate that family and friends have supported me and no-one ever said "you can't do that at your age". I really think that to a certain extent, age is the mind. Even though our bodies do deteriorate as we get older and exercise can be harder, there is a lot you can do to maintain your health and an active life style can certainly help. I think I'm actually more physically active now than when I was younger.

 

I've also learnt that sometimes things that upset us or worry us or make us angry are not usually that important anyway. In the whole scheme of things I think that we are all lucky to be where we are, as there are many in the world who are a lot less fortunate than ourselves.

 

All the best and live life to the fullest

Ray

Day 25 - Bangkok - 24th December 2008

Got out at 8.15 for the final day of my trip. Decided to keep it easy today and took the skytrain to the last stop Saphan Taksan on the Chao Praya River. Then paid 150 baht for an all day tourist pass on the Chao Phraya Express Tourist Boat. This is actually expensive by Thai prices but for $7.50 I thought it was the easiest way today. This boat just stops at 9 stops which are close to the main tourist sites. I had already seen the 3 main sites yesterday but stopped at the 8th stop to then cross the river to visit Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) then when I returned to continue the journey I met some Aussies from Newcastle and accidentally got the boat with them going in the return direction, so got off on the next stop and visited the local market before returning back to wharf, only to see the tourist boat bypass the stop. A local told me they don't always stop here so that was quite annoying as the brochure said it was a scheduled stop. Ended up catching another boat and decided to visit Khao San Road on the last stop. This road is an old road with some original wooden shophouses but is now a busy tourist street with cheap guesthouses and street stalls selling the usual pirate copies of clothing DVDs,souvenirs etc. Then time to go so had time for a quick lunch at a street stall before boarding the boat back to the skytrain station. When I arrived I realised I may not have enough money for the taxi ride to the aitport so after re-packing found an ATM and took a bit extra out. When I got in the taxi I noticed he didn't have the meter on so I told him to put the meter on and he gave me a story that he was going on the expressway and it would cost 600 baht. I told him it should only be about 200 to 250 and then he said 400 baht to which I then said to stop and I would get off. He then put the meter on and it ended up costing 210 baht plus the toll fees of 70 baht. I think the driver was feeling a bit guilty after I caught him out so he drove extra quick and got me to the airport in just 30 minutes after telling me it would take about 50 minutes.  So you do have to be on the alert if you don't want to get ripped off but the Thai government is trying to stop all this and actually have a tourist police number if you run into any trouble.   

Timing was good this time with 2 hours before take-off and check-in was easy, no queues and it turned out the plane was only aboiut 25% full so most people had at least 3 seats to themselves. Watched "Get Smart" and tried to get some sleep at 8.30pm (11.30pm Sydney time) as the plane was landing at 2.30am (6.30am Sydney time). Food was pretty good as well on the flight and landed on time Christmas Day. Declared a fw items which were no problem and re-united with Daisy who was there to pick me up. So ends this epic journey of endurance and discovery. 

Day 24 - Bangkok - 23rd December 2008

This will probably be my last entry before going home.

Woke up early and had brekky at a street store which are all over Bangkok. $1.50 for rice and chicken with a fried egg. Also bought a big bottle of water as I was expecting a hot day. Took the advice of Dave, the American guy who I think is the owner and took a canal boat from down the road and went to the last stop. These water buses are pretty neat. Had trouble finding the right direction to the river to catch the next boat but ended up just walking to The Grand Palace. Similar to the Chinese Palaces I saw but much smaller in area. It was very interesting because Thai architecture is very different to Chinese although there were some very Chinese looking sculptures around the area. Took around 2 hours to see everything then a walk to the neighbouring Reclining Buddha and I was amazed to see how huge it was. There were also some other interesting temples within the grounds. After that it was still quite early so I decided to go walking to Chinatown and it was a lot longer than I expected but also came across a couple of markets and a lot of street stalls along one of the main roads, Silom Rd and bought some very cheap T-shirts and shorts. Also tried various food from street vendors ( Chinese thingos, chicken kebabs which were yum and pineapple which was also yum) as well as Won Ton Noodle soup in Chinatown ($1.50). At 6.15 I decided to try a proper restaurant (Windmill Restaurant) and had a nice Tom Yum Gai soup and Hor Mok Seafood which was very similar to what we get back home. Afterwards wandered around a market full of the usual clothes, pirate DVDs and CDs etc. This area also had lots of bars with Thai girls in bikinis dancing around, but honestly I only saw them from the street. Then decided to try the sky rail for the rest of the journey home to shower and rest as my feet were aching. Watched a Heavyweight World Title fight between a huge Russian guy, Nikolei Valuev (?) who is Champ against Evander Holyfield. The Russian won.

Day23 - Bangkok - 22nd December 2008

Last day in Beijing so decided to visit the Olympic Park which took me about 35 minutes to cycle. Had trouble trying to work out how to get in as everybody else was on a tour group and because I got there earlier I didn't seee where they got the tickets from and I walked right around without seeing the ticket office. Turned out to be at the opposite end of where you enter in the car park so I had to walk half way around again. The Water Cube is an interesting piece of architecture and actually is made up of two layers forming the bubbles. Cost 30RMB to get in. Then to the Bird's Nest which was 50 RMB to enter. These are actually pretty expensive by Chinese standards considering that its just to go in and have a look but I guess they have to make the money back somehow. This is also an amazing building and probably on par with the Sydney Opera House as far as complexity is concerned. The Olympic mascots were doing a cute dance inside as well. I was going to try and fit in another sight before leaving but ran out of money so just rode back and hung around the Hostel and the shops until 1.45pm. I thought I would give myself plenty of tme to get to the airport and as usual, everything went smoothly so had a lot of time on my hands.

Plane was on time so landed in Bangkok at 10pm and catching a taxi was easy as they now regulate it so that there is no longer a group of drivers hanging around trying to hustle you and the taxi drivers line-up to collect a ticket which has your destination written on it in thai. This is done by a lady sitting at a desk when you get to the taxi stand. When I got dropped off I had some trouble locating the Hostel as it wasn't signposted that well but a couple of locals helped me. Hostel isn't as good as the Beijing one , very cramped room but it's only for two nights so thats fine. Bangkok is very hot so I've gone from one extreme to the other.

Day 22 - Beijing - 21st December 2008

Got out at 8.15 and hired a bike again to ride to Panjiayuan Markets which has all sorts of Chinese arts and crafts and nic-nacs, recommended by the guide books. I actually managed to bargain in Chinese and the starting prices I got were only about double what the item was worth as opposed to 10 times at the other market. Bought the Mao ceramic figurine I've been after, very kitsch and a couple of brass things. Then decide to ride to Beihai Park but happened to pass Pearl Market which I had remembered reading about and ended up buying Daisy a tea pot and 6 cups.

Beihai Park was another interesting park with another large lake and more old Chinese buildings so even though Beijing has undergone a lot of modernising it's good that so many of the major historic buildings are preserved in the parks. Because of the lake, it was freezing.

I should mention that todays temperature was forecast as a high of -7 and low of -14 and it certainly felt like it. The coldest day of my life and the wind also created a good headwind at times and practically froze my face off and I got this tingling sensation on my skin, never felt anything like it before. Also when I got back, the bottle of water I had taken had half frozen! By the time I got back to the Hostel I could hardly speak, I was so numb. After 15 minutes defrosting I ventured out again and bought a few more gifts for the family before heading back to the first restaurant I went to for another serving of Peking Duck plus a bowl of seafood and tofu soup that was actually big enough for a group of people but the whole meal still only cost me about $AUS10 and this was at a more up-market restaurant.

Day 21 - Beijing - 20th December 2008

Got out at 8.45am and hired a bike for my trip to The Temple of Heaven. Besides seeing some famous buildings that are often featured in movies the other interesting thing was all the entertainment in the park. Lots of men playing cards, mah-jong, people ball-room dancing, scarf dancing, choirs etc. The Chinese really make good use of their parks. These grounds are also very big but was able to cover everything in half a day. I then rode to Tianamen Square and took a few photos, then had a couple of hours to spare before dinner so just rode around and saw some very modern buildings before parking the bike in Wanfujing to have a look at some modern shopping centres, which are pretty much the same as home.

I then decided to try and find the Liqun Roast Duck restaurant which was featured on Getaway as they still prepare the duck in the traditional manner and in an original stone oven. We had passed it on the way to the markets the other day and I saw the walking ducks sign again on the way to the Temple of Heaven and i surprised myself by finding it again this time. It wasn't very big and nobody actually took any notice of me until I stopped a lady who looked like the boss and asked her if it was OK for one person to dine. She said it was and they immediately set up another single table and sat me down. They guessed I was there for Peking duck and I assumed I would get half a duck but the chef came out later and showed me a whole duck, but when it came out on a plate it looked like half a duck. However as I was enjoying myself, they brought out another plate with the same serving. I was then thinking that I was hungry but maybe not that hungry, when another foreigner came in on his own so I told him he could join me and asked him if he intended getting a whole duck which he didn't, so I suddenly had someone to share with so it all worked out well. Damion is a Londoner of Jamaican extraction and funny enough knew Sydney really well and wants to migrate. He is on his way home from Sydney and thought he would have a Sydney job so he could return but the economic downturn hasn't made it possible so he'll have to try again in future. The duck was really nice but cost 100RMB ($AUS22.50)each so was considerably more expensive than the one I had on the first night and really not that much better so I think I'll be returning to that first restaurant for a repeat meal.

Day 20 - Beijing - 19th December 2008

Was going to cycle to The Summer Palace today but the hostel said it would take about 2 hours so I changed my mind and decided to try the rail system. Besides it was the one form of Beijing transport I hadn't tried yet. It was actually very good, just 2RMB per trip to anywhere on the system. Had to change to a bus to the Summer Palace and had to ask a local which direction. My sense of direction has been terrible here, I think because the sun is in the south instead of the north and its a bit disorientating. Spent the whole day at the Palace as it is massive. Most of it is taken up by Kunming Lake but the grounds are still huge. A very impressive Buddhist temple overlooks the lake and the whole area is very picturesque. I also discovered another buddhist temple behind which is still in original state and the architecture was quite different. This palace was a playground for the imperial families to get away from Beijing and also includes Suzhou Street which is a reproduction of part of the water town of Suzhou, near Shanghai. Also saw the famous Marble Boat commissioned by Empress Cixi. Altogether a very impressive area. Left at about 4pm to give myself 2 and a bit hours to get back to the Hostel as I had booked a seat for the Kung Fu show and its just as well I did as I went the wrong way again when I left the last metro spot and got totally lost. I don't have a good map as it only shows the main roads and the blocks are not your standard size Aussie blocks, they're massive. Ended up asking a local who just happened to speak excellent English and I was on the right way. Also Krissy and Daisy both rang me as I was trying to find my way home so it was all pretty hectic. I ran the last 15 minutes and got home with 15 minutes to spare.

Only two others were going with me Stevie and Josh from Melbourne who happened to be the first Aussies I had met in Beijing. I turned out to be the first they had met. Then when we got to the show, there was a Chinese family next to us but they were also from Melbourne. The show was good but there wasn't really anything I hadn't seen before and I was a bit disappointed that the dialogue was dubbed and in English, with Chinese subtitles. The show in Kunming was better I thought. However, Stevie and Josh seemed to enjoy it so that was good.

The show finished at 9pm and by coincidence we met up again at Fish Nation which serves non-Chinese food like Fish and Chips and spaghetti. So thats two nights in a row I didn't have Chinese but I intend having Peking Duck tomorrow.