Now that semester has started, I do have some difficulty in recalling all the useful bits to say... hmmm
It was convenient. Food was nice. Public transport clean and efficient.
Lecturers could speak English, some better than Monash lecturers. Class sizes were tiny.
Labs were open late - postgrads had weird hours. The whole place had late hours.
I felt less stingy and that stuff was worth spending on.
Campus felt like a nicer place.
Small living conditions. Crowded footpaths. Warm, grimy air outside. Excessive air conditioning. Feeling like I need to have a shower after being awake for one hour and needing to wash clothes after half a day.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
closing down sale
For the regulars and random lurkers, if you have any requests for certain topics to be covered, please give feedback now!
You may post anonymously as of 2/7/2010.
You may post anonymously as of 2/7/2010.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Fooding samples
Bayview
Located at the bottom of the Sassoon Road student halls.
1. Student Rice
$12
Big blob of rice, two sausages, vegetables*, egg and a choice of onion sauce or black pepper sauce.
*usually available in the early afternoon otherwise the lady will mumble some stuff apologising... or not at all.
Other permutations of sausage, egg, luncheon meat and "ham" available at the same price.
2. Set Breakfast A with hot drink
$14
Features two hash browns, buttered bread and scrambled egg.
HK milk tea shown in picture.
Other permutations available at an extra $2-$4. Beef, chicken, pork, fish (all deep-fried) are possibilities.
3. Set Breakfast Borsch Soup with Abalone pieces
$17~
While the soup doesn't look that great, it goes down easily once it cools. There's bits of beef and vegetable floating about and a low-intensity sweet taste in the background from the tomato.
Hot lemon tea shown. This meal is rather high in liquids. It is not advised to ask for no drink as the conversation will result in confusion as it goes against the Asian principle of getting full value. That is, they will just ask you what drink you want until you give in.
4. Sizzling Plate Spring Chicken
$28
From visual inspection, there appears to be a whole chicken on the plate. This observation would be correct. The chicken is a little hard to work with and takes a bit more effort to eat. Also supplied is a bowl of Borsch soup, choice of black pepper or onion sauce and rice. A drink is included.
5. Sizzling Plate Beef Steak
$28
Similar to above. There are chewy bits in the beef but generally takes less effort to eat.
I like the idea of sizzling plates.
Other - on campus
Student Union restaurant (Asia Pacific catering/aka Cafe de Coral)
6. Afternoon tea set
$20~
Pasta and ham to the right. Chicken burger, sausage and buttered toast and onion sauce. Cold drink included. Afternoon tea is the worst value time to be eating.
7. Shredded beef noodles sizzling plate
$24.5
No drink included. It's rather oily and difficult to eat immediately - it forces you to adopt its pace. A nice combination otherwise.
8. New Zealand Beef Steak sizzling plate
$38
There's a tiny serving of fried rice - and a rather simple one that was. There's a large serving of sauce (choice given). Unlike the Bayview equivalent, there were no chewy bits in this steak. A drink is included.
9. Breakfast set
$12~
All the details are in the picture.
10. Breakfast set
$14~
They have a coffee machine at this restaurant so it actually tastes decent, unlike Bayview's pre-made batches.
This features fried fish, sausage and turnip cake. The turnip cake turned out below expectation.
Other notable meals not pictured
11. 100 marks selection - Minced beef, tomato sauce...
$24.5
Rather like spaghetti bolognaise on rice, this featured white rice with minced beef and tomato sauce. Two pieces of broccoli and one egg with yolk unbroken decorate the top. It seems healthy enough and a novel take on western food.
12. Combination Fried Rice
$19.5
A very safe choice. The skew towards meat over vegetables is quite evident in this meal even though the pieces are tiny, but numerous.
Outside notable mentions
Yoshinoya meals
Really really fast rice bowls. Can be rather dear, ranging from high 20s to mid 40s. Fast food not involving burgers!
Filler:-
Ruby Tuesday
Ridiculously expensive only redeemed by their 50% off for members. Of course membership isn't cheap. Meals were listed at $100 to mid 300s. It was a communal thing with hallmates.
Located at the bottom of the Sassoon Road student halls.
1. Student Rice
$12
Big blob of rice, two sausages, vegetables*, egg and a choice of onion sauce or black pepper sauce.
*usually available in the early afternoon otherwise the lady will mumble some stuff apologising... or not at all.
Other permutations of sausage, egg, luncheon meat and "ham" available at the same price.
2. Set Breakfast A with hot drink
$14
Features two hash browns, buttered bread and scrambled egg.
HK milk tea shown in picture.
Other permutations available at an extra $2-$4. Beef, chicken, pork, fish (all deep-fried) are possibilities.
3. Set Breakfast Borsch Soup with Abalone pieces
$17~
While the soup doesn't look that great, it goes down easily once it cools. There's bits of beef and vegetable floating about and a low-intensity sweet taste in the background from the tomato.
Hot lemon tea shown. This meal is rather high in liquids. It is not advised to ask for no drink as the conversation will result in confusion as it goes against the Asian principle of getting full value. That is, they will just ask you what drink you want until you give in.
4. Sizzling Plate Spring Chicken
$28
From visual inspection, there appears to be a whole chicken on the plate. This observation would be correct. The chicken is a little hard to work with and takes a bit more effort to eat. Also supplied is a bowl of Borsch soup, choice of black pepper or onion sauce and rice. A drink is included.
5. Sizzling Plate Beef Steak
$28
Similar to above. There are chewy bits in the beef but generally takes less effort to eat.
I like the idea of sizzling plates.
Other - on campus
Student Union restaurant (Asia Pacific catering/aka Cafe de Coral)
6. Afternoon tea set
$20~
Pasta and ham to the right. Chicken burger, sausage and buttered toast and onion sauce. Cold drink included. Afternoon tea is the worst value time to be eating.
7. Shredded beef noodles sizzling plate
$24.5
No drink included. It's rather oily and difficult to eat immediately - it forces you to adopt its pace. A nice combination otherwise.
8. New Zealand Beef Steak sizzling plate
$38
There's a tiny serving of fried rice - and a rather simple one that was. There's a large serving of sauce (choice given). Unlike the Bayview equivalent, there were no chewy bits in this steak. A drink is included.
9. Breakfast set
$12~
All the details are in the picture.
10. Breakfast set
$14~
They have a coffee machine at this restaurant so it actually tastes decent, unlike Bayview's pre-made batches.
This features fried fish, sausage and turnip cake. The turnip cake turned out below expectation.
Other notable meals not pictured
11. 100 marks selection - Minced beef, tomato sauce...
$24.5
Rather like spaghetti bolognaise on rice, this featured white rice with minced beef and tomato sauce. Two pieces of broccoli and one egg with yolk unbroken decorate the top. It seems healthy enough and a novel take on western food.
12. Combination Fried Rice
$19.5
A very safe choice. The skew towards meat over vegetables is quite evident in this meal even though the pieces are tiny, but numerous.
Outside notable mentions
Yoshinoya meals
Really really fast rice bowls. Can be rather dear, ranging from high 20s to mid 40s. Fast food not involving burgers!
Filler:-
Ruby Tuesday
Ridiculously expensive only redeemed by their 50% off for members. Of course membership isn't cheap. Meals were listed at $100 to mid 300s. It was a communal thing with hallmates.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Getting back
The maths for my luggage mass doesn't quite work out with what the airport staff told me and the official policies posted on the website. I had a feeling it was going to be over as it was a bit of a struggle getting all the gear from the hall to the bus stop.
Official policy stipulates:
Hong Kong International Airport is so ridiculously big that it has its own rail shuttle services between gates.
The first leg to Auckland was pretty good. The plane did seem a bit old in that there were ashtrays in the toilet doors but it was pretty empty and easy to do your own thing. I watched 'The Road' and skimmed through 'The Exam' at 32x. Crappy screen contrast didn't help with viewing those kind of dark movies.
I hope that red wine was the most expensive drink available to maximise 'value'.
For this flight, there was a Chinese man as flight service manager. I thought his New Zealand accent was funny - I think it kinda contaminated his putonghua. It also got me thinking about how the airline provides a regionalised service for passengers in that the staff, entertainment system and printed materials seem to be catered for Asia as well as the splattering of New Zealand and general Western culture. Seems so mafan.
Sunrise from window.
Auckland was a crappy stopover. Security was bored so they seemed to examine everyone's bags in detail for international transfers. The bloke was interested in my coloured staples and metal vice - a 'very dense metal'. hmmm
The public announcement lady didn't trip up when reading out challenging foreign names but I wasn't impressed by their weak guilt trip for final boarding call. "All the other passengers are waiting for you" wasn't delivered with much conviction. One could just imagine the other passengers oblivious to this matter. Also, the loudness wasn't standardised between announcements. "Due to blah blah... USA security... requires you to clear immigration and proceed directly to the boarding gate" was unusually loud and isn't relevant for the majority of passengers.
I spent my 6 hours watching BBC Life in the undergrowth documentaries. The flight to Melbourne was delayed and the weather wasn't all that great.
Boeing 747 at the end of a rainbow.
The flight home was even worse after boarding. An Airbus A320... horrible layout. There was only a single aisle down the middle and the seats were rather close to each other. In seat entertainment was quite modern and the safety briefing was rather disturbing with the body-paint uniforms.
Australian customs/quarrantine had a dog walk past everyone but failed in the end due understaffing. I used the e-ticket/smart system, which I supposed can be likened to self-service checkout at the supermarket. At least for the customs lady there. I ticked food and wood on the card. They only asked about the wood - which were the mini table-tennis racquets I had bought at Jusco's 10-dollar store. They lost interest immediately and waved me out.
Anyway, the mass totals were:
Official policy stipulates:
- 20kg checked baggage
- 10kg free sporting goods allowance
Hong Kong International Airport is so ridiculously big that it has its own rail shuttle services between gates.
The first leg to Auckland was pretty good. The plane did seem a bit old in that there were ashtrays in the toilet doors but it was pretty empty and easy to do your own thing. I watched 'The Road' and skimmed through 'The Exam' at 32x. Crappy screen contrast didn't help with viewing those kind of dark movies.
For this flight, there was a Chinese man as flight service manager. I thought his New Zealand accent was funny - I think it kinda contaminated his putonghua. It also got me thinking about how the airline provides a regionalised service for passengers in that the staff, entertainment system and printed materials seem to be catered for Asia as well as the splattering of New Zealand and general Western culture. Seems so mafan.
Auckland was a crappy stopover. Security was bored so they seemed to examine everyone's bags in detail for international transfers. The bloke was interested in my coloured staples and metal vice - a 'very dense metal'. hmmm
The public announcement lady didn't trip up when reading out challenging foreign names but I wasn't impressed by their weak guilt trip for final boarding call. "All the other passengers are waiting for you" wasn't delivered with much conviction. One could just imagine the other passengers oblivious to this matter. Also, the loudness wasn't standardised between announcements. "Due to blah blah... USA security... requires you to clear immigration and proceed directly to the boarding gate" was unusually loud and isn't relevant for the majority of passengers.
I spent my 6 hours watching BBC Life in the undergrowth documentaries. The flight to Melbourne was delayed and the weather wasn't all that great.
The flight home was even worse after boarding. An Airbus A320... horrible layout. There was only a single aisle down the middle and the seats were rather close to each other. In seat entertainment was quite modern and the safety briefing was rather disturbing with the body-paint uniforms.
Australian customs/quarrantine had a dog walk past everyone but failed in the end due understaffing. I used the e-ticket/smart system, which I supposed can be likened to self-service checkout at the supermarket. At least for the customs lady there. I ticked food and wood on the card. They only asked about the wood - which were the mini table-tennis racquets I had bought at Jusco's 10-dollar store. They lost interest immediately and waved me out.
Anyway, the mass totals were:
- checked baggage 19.2kg
- checked baggage 4.8kg
- "sporting goods" 9.1kg
- cabin/backpack 5.8kg
- personal effect/laptop 3kg
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
All other matters
University
+late hours of uni mean that nobody will kick you out of laboratories until the post-grad actually want to go home (they work from about midday to 2AM)
+small classes for EE
+good food selection
-floors relative to ground indicate how hilly everything is (Let's go from O to G)
-distance from hall
General
+air conditioning actually works in minibuses, buses and MTR
+public holidays still mean something like the city working at 75% intensity
+can get around late
+can still get home at normal transport prices until 1AM
+convenience in eating
+ 八達通,7-11,Circle-K
-can't buy some things in the morning until the store opens at 11AM
-pockets of hot and cold air feel really disgusting
-stuff is damp
-transport expenses can spiral out of control since it's a charge per ride system
Something about classes...
-domestic servants
-overstaffed places, even cinemas
-autistic and old people as cleaners at café de coral (asia pac catering)
--they say thank you and bye bye really loud, mister (xian sheng) are you done with the meal etc
Trying to write up something more sentence-like:
Hong Kong offers a high-service lifestyle at the expense of personal space and nature. People have created a human-habital space in spite of the environment.
• land reclamation - perhaps one day there will be no need for ferries
• air conditioning
• hillslopes and roads always being ripped up
+late hours of uni mean that nobody will kick you out of laboratories until the post-grad actually want to go home (they work from about midday to 2AM)
+small classes for EE
+good food selection
-floors relative to ground indicate how hilly everything is (Let's go from O to G)
-distance from hall
General
+air conditioning actually works in minibuses, buses and MTR
+public holidays still mean something like the city working at 75% intensity
+can get around late
+can still get home at normal transport prices until 1AM
+convenience in eating
+ 八達通,7-11,Circle-K
-can't buy some things in the morning until the store opens at 11AM
-pockets of hot and cold air feel really disgusting
-stuff is damp
-transport expenses can spiral out of control since it's a charge per ride system
Something about classes...
-domestic servants
-overstaffed places, even cinemas
-autistic and old people as cleaners at café de coral (asia pac catering)
--they say thank you and bye bye really loud, mister (xian sheng) are you done with the meal etc
Trying to write up something more sentence-like:
Hong Kong offers a high-service lifestyle at the expense of personal space and nature. People have created a human-habital space in spite of the environment.
• land reclamation - perhaps one day there will be no need for ferries
• air conditioning
• hillslopes and roads always being ripped up
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Hall conveniences
While I had the pleasure of sitting an exam with a few dozen mosquito bites to remind me about the lack of flyscreens in the hall, I felt it was necessary to compile this piece to maintain balance in light of Mr Liu's recent remark.
Hallmates are indeed friendly and they will go out of their way to do stuff when one asks for help/information.
Sometimes the information isn't strictly required:- We had a lightning storm this evening and the power was disrupted. Most importantly, computing was disrupted.
"Diu lei lo mo, mo din ah!"
Blunt, yet informative.
Of course, there is a certain air of freedom in halls. Especially with the no alcohol, smoking, drugs poster next to the recycle bin overflowing with beer cans.
The halls are about twenty minutes walk to main campus but there are no fewer than three forms of connecting services. A university shuttle bus stops about thirty metres from the front door. A minibus stop is about one-hundred metres walk and a public bus stop is about three-hundred metres walk away. It's nice not feeling drowsy from the journey to and from campus.
Eating is convenient and when the convenience isn't enough, there's a 7-11 ten metres from the front door.
Hallmates are indeed friendly and they will go out of their way to do stuff when one asks for help/information.
Sometimes the information isn't strictly required:- We had a lightning storm this evening and the power was disrupted. Most importantly, computing was disrupted.
"Diu lei lo mo, mo din ah!"
Blunt, yet informative.
Of course, there is a certain air of freedom in halls. Especially with the no alcohol, smoking, drugs poster next to the recycle bin overflowing with beer cans.
The halls are about twenty minutes walk to main campus but there are no fewer than three forms of connecting services. A university shuttle bus stops about thirty metres from the front door. A minibus stop is about one-hundred metres walk and a public bus stop is about three-hundred metres walk away. It's nice not feeling drowsy from the journey to and from campus.
Eating is convenient and when the convenience isn't enough, there's a 7-11 ten metres from the front door.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Hall inconveniences
I certainly won't miss that hocking noise that so many people use to clear their throat of phlegm.
Noisy flip flop skipping, hockey in the corridor at 2AM...
Stupid non conversations in hall - just sounds...
The laundry booking system existed on paper only. It's also annoying to have to wait for an elevator just to get out of the building.
Noisy flip flop skipping, hockey in the corridor at 2AM...
Stupid non conversations in hall - just sounds...
The laundry booking system existed on paper only. It's also annoying to have to wait for an elevator just to get out of the building.
Monday, May 10, 2010
shop - 1 (badminton racquets)
Well, if pictures are worth a thousand words, how many words is a motion picture at 15fps with 20 minutes duration?
Anyway, after being greeted by the sight of students studying in the Flora Ho sports centre changerooms before their exam in the recreation hall, I decided to go have a look at badminton racquets. Enjoy it Sam~
Anyway, after being greeted by the sight of students studying in the Flora Ho sports centre changerooms before their exam in the recreation hall, I decided to go have a look at badminton racquets. Enjoy it Sam~
Saturday, May 8, 2010
HK rain
In some ways I feel that Hong Kong rain is not as real and apparent as the rain I'm used to.
Of course, when I'm at ground level I can feel the impact of the raindrops on my head. However the temperature seems to remain rather warm.
When I'm in my room, the line "it occurred to me that it had been raining" seems to fit. I don't hear much noise from the rain - at most the drippings from one air conditioning unit to another. Granted, I'm nowhere near the roof level so I wouldn't be getting that kind of noise that I'm used to. I see the puddles form on the ground level. I open the windows and see that there is water falling from the sky. But there is an air of unrealness... it just seems to occur in a separate domain.
Of course, when I'm at ground level I can feel the impact of the raindrops on my head. However the temperature seems to remain rather warm.
When I'm in my room, the line "it occurred to me that it had been raining" seems to fit. I don't hear much noise from the rain - at most the drippings from one air conditioning unit to another. Granted, I'm nowhere near the roof level so I wouldn't be getting that kind of noise that I'm used to. I see the puddles form on the ground level. I open the windows and see that there is water falling from the sky. But there is an air of unrealness... it just seems to occur in a separate domain.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Superpass
There's some intriguing customs revolving around improving one's chances for good marks.
Apples are distributed on campus catering - apparently the words sound similar to passing.
Red packets are distributed at high table dinner. $1.30 sounds like greater than 3 (for GPA).
There was also lion dancing, where the lions made their way up on a 5m pole after some difficulty.
A guest speaker came for the high table dinner and spoke about some stuff in Cantonese. The students who were meant to be translating snickered instead of explaining a lot of the time. The warden and other hall leaders wrote some Superpass stuff on red sheets of paper.
In addition, we had a village/floor superpass dinner at Ruby Tuesday's. The prices were obscene: $150-300 for meals and $50 drinks. However they have 50% off for members - an interesting strategy since membership costs a few hundred dollars a year.
On the way back a green minibus was hired out. I can now report from my own experience that there is an intermittent beep between 80-90km/h and a solid beep over 90km/h.
Studying for exams is still a good risk reduction technique.
Plus it can be fun - I joined another student named Winfred in Prof Cheung's office. Prof Cheung kept deflecting Winfred's queries by saying he's not the one being quizzed on Friday. He also laughed a lot at some explanations and went about his normal business as best he could - he took a lot of phone calls while we were there. He's quite traditional in that he wants people to read the material as the first point-of-call (none of the interactive stuff). Also, he might equate not knowing something with wagging his lectures...
Apples are distributed on campus catering - apparently the words sound similar to passing.
Red packets are distributed at high table dinner. $1.30 sounds like greater than 3 (for GPA).
There was also lion dancing, where the lions made their way up on a 5m pole after some difficulty.
A guest speaker came for the high table dinner and spoke about some stuff in Cantonese. The students who were meant to be translating snickered instead of explaining a lot of the time. The warden and other hall leaders wrote some Superpass stuff on red sheets of paper.
In addition, we had a village/floor superpass dinner at Ruby Tuesday's. The prices were obscene: $150-300 for meals and $50 drinks. However they have 50% off for members - an interesting strategy since membership costs a few hundred dollars a year.
On the way back a green minibus was hired out. I can now report from my own experience that there is an intermittent beep between 80-90km/h and a solid beep over 90km/h.
Studying for exams is still a good risk reduction technique.
Plus it can be fun - I joined another student named Winfred in Prof Cheung's office. Prof Cheung kept deflecting Winfred's queries by saying he's not the one being quizzed on Friday. He also laughed a lot at some explanations and went about his normal business as best he could - he took a lot of phone calls while we were there. He's quite traditional in that he wants people to read the material as the first point-of-call (none of the interactive stuff). Also, he might equate not knowing something with wagging his lectures...
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Easter
1 Thursday
Destination-objective: 丽江
Was a travelling day. The border crossing was pretty busy as expected. The arrival into China hall was pretty much full. We used the wrong queue but some other foreigners had followed us making it untenable for the border police lady to make us join the back of the correct queue.
Shenzhen Airport security wanted umbrellas outside of bags for the X-ray inspection. I saw remote-controlled tank in the departure lounge for 240 yuan. Somewhat tempting…
The aircraft was an Airbus A319. True to its name in the sense that it was a bus in the air. It was small. It lacked in-seat displays; rather retractable overhead LCDs were used. No headphones were distributed either. We had a stopover at Kunming before heading on to Lijiang. The Kunming-Lijiang leg was ridiculously short, but somewhat necessary with the poor road conditions below. There was enough time for flight attendants to distribute a snack, but not enough time to collect the rubbish.
Lijiang’s airport looks to be a decent attempt at an airport from the outside. The aircraft did actually park at a terminal rather than near a building as was the case in Kunming. However, the luggage carousel and ramp looked like a garage-job.
I was a little worried about accommodation, having not booked it prior to leaving. It turned out alright as there were inn employees more worried about not being able to fill rooms.
I thought the single Chinese timezone would muck things up a bit but it seems like having bits of rock stick up a few thousand meters helps block out the sunlight at either end of the day.
Here’s Lijiang old town at night:
2 Friday
Destination-objective: 云杉坪
Going to the place where the airport bus seemed like a good idea to get directions, however, we were directed onto the route 8 bus which brought us back to the ancient town. Public transport in Lijiang comes ridiculously frequently. Much better than in Melbourne!
The next step was to take the route 7 bus to mountains. But this wasn’t really a public bus. They offered to hide us from the drive-through ticket booth operators for a lower total fee. It was extremely dodgy in the front passenger seat where one girl curled up in the footwell while the driver’s business associate/bored friend/family member sat in the front passenger seat. Another two hid in the back of the van. We later found out that their friends in a different van were caught and didn’t want to pay the entrance fee. I think it was 160 yuan plus 10 yuan bus rather than 100 yuan dodgily.
Route 7 takes you to the starting point for Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and other lofty places above 4000m in the area.
Every stage presents an opportunity for the Chinese to take more money from you:
Bus
Cable car – on the way down there were some Chinese ladies who wanted to take photos with her. That she can speak Mandarin adds to the shock of seeing a white person.
Electric cart
Yunshanping, aka Spruce Meadow, was quite a pleasant place when one manages to get away from the hordes of Chinese. It was a nice patch of meadow, so you can actually take photos of the scenery without having too many trees in the way. Some people were taking more serious photos:
There was one particularly annoying Chinese lady who initiated a shout/call everytime a cart passed ours on the way back. I think the people on the passing carts were just a bit stunned though.
I wonder if this is the ancient Naxi equivalent of ‘back in the kitchen, woman!’
Back in town, the view from here feels very strange. I like how the clouds cast little shadows on the mountainside. Also the density of the ancient town is quite staggering. No Australian dream to be transplanted here. The shops are still small even though land is aplenty here.
Jade dragon pool made for pretty photos too.
Plus there was a treehugger.
Plus nightclubs/bars in the ancient town.
But I'll refrain from putting in the other photos of translation errors and the like.
Lessons learned during dinner:
Hawkers in Lijiang ancient town come more often than the MTR in Hong Kong
An old lady can use fish to feed a dog. In accepting our refusal to purchase her goods, she requested to feed our leftover fish to her dog.
3 Saturday
Destination-objective: 桥头 and hike
We started the day by walking to the express bus station. The lady was quite blunt in saying there weren’t any tickets left for the 8:30 bus and wasn’t forthcoming with more information. The route 11 bus took us to the other bus station and we waited for the 10:40 Shangrila via Qiaotou. (Route 11 was serviced by double-deckers in a city of one million.)
The bus ride was certainly an interesting experience. Excessive use of the horn and smoking were the key points. Otherwise the bus driver was pro. Other road users provided additional entertainment.
Well, Qiaotou is a bit of a dump/quarry. There was a guy in a bad suit saying the road was closed but after mentioning the high path he said good luck and let us through, while acknowledging no insurance.
The path up was a bit ambiguous but otherwise uninteresting.
Start of the hike:
There was a ticket office but they were taking reduced fees due to the road blasting below. There, the old lady gave us pear but a dust plume blew over and made it dirty.
From hereon in it was rather scenic – not much to talk about but a lot to soak up in terms of scenery.
You really don’t need guides and the horses are only necessary if you want to deny yourself of the full hiking experience/exhaustion. Besides, you can look at other people’s horses/guides to see where to go!
There’s a feature called twenty-eight bends on the map, however, it’s unclear where it starts and certainly felt more than twenty-eight switchbacks.
At the top there was another lady selling some snacks and drinks. Another basket of Snickers bars. I bought an orange drink from her, 500mL for 6 yuan. The markup isn’t too bad. The sugary drink wasn’t such a great idea. But that might have been the thinner mountain air kicking in.
I inquired about her situation and she says it’s 7 km to get to work and she’s been in business for 4 years.
That evening we stayed at the Tea Horse Guest House. The place did seem a bit big to me. The food was decent. Both aspects were pricey as expected on the side of a river canyon.
4 Sunday
Destination-objective: exit TLG
Setting off at the very comfortable time of 9AM, we came across an old man who refused to entertain Agnes’ request for a photo with him. Another one ignored Agnes’ 你好，but replied to me. Hehe. There was some drizzle and the temperature was cooler than the day before. There were plenty of random bridges, waterfalls and villages to cross. Also… Happy time advertisement here:
Getting to the actual river level was something else. There was construction work, a really nasty dog to notify the owner that there’s money to collect plus a treacherous path.
We avoided the ladder. It didn’t look like a good idea from the pictures.
When we actually got down to the river it was… noisy. It looked like insta-death if you jumped in. Plus there were signs explaining that it would be a likely scenario.
There’s a whole collection of signs explaining why you should pay the money. We took Zhang’s path down and headed up towards Sean’s. The path down was clear although steep. However, Sean’s path gets a bit lost in bamboo patches here and there. Also the handrails aren’t secure and they’re only made of wood.
The guy who took our money for the last stretch walked with us. He even took a photo without asking for more money. He was pretty cool about it all – not having to concentrate on the path and keeping his hands behind his back.
I did expect Sean’s guesthouse to be a bit more lively. Perhaps the website made it out to be grander than it actually is.
The walls are a tad thin. Hrmm.
I fell on the steps here:
Plus they haven’t put in stairs here…
5 Monday
Destination-objective: Back to丽江
The van out of Wallnut Grove was organised at Sean’s in the morning and took us past a previous landslide but stopped at another one further down. There was some delay in waiting for works to cease before we could rush across.
Along the way, workers were building the edges of the road and safety barricades, as well as dropping explosives.
The driver didn’t let this kid hitchhike:
She caught up to us because of the landslide-delay.
Another van (more money) got us to Qiaotou. It being Qing Ming public holiday, all of the public buses were conveniently full. More money went into a van back to Lijiang. There was a little bit of bargaining involved but I think if they didn’t take so many friends/family then the mass reduction would have saved them money.
Fail driving:
At 1520 two platoons of PLA with brooms march by.
China.
I also get my stash of Lay’s Cool Cucumber chips.
6 Tuesday
Destination-objective: random villages
This day was dedicated to biking. I really don’t like the way Chinese traffic works, especially when I’m a cyclist. Anyway… the villages were kinda dead and selling the same crap. The old doctor was funny to listen to. He didn’t greet me until we were just about to leave because he “thought I was Chinese.” I thought that the shops here were just part of the Baisha frescos place, but it turns out it was Baisha village itself. Fail.
Oh yes, more randoms dressed up.
Here’s the sun at 1600 hours.
And I got epic sunburn on the back of my hands and also a camera strap line on my neck.
7 Wednesday
Destination-objective: Hong Kong
Most of the day was spent bumming around in Lijiang old town.
The bus to the airport is a just-in-time service.
The airport is typical Chinese from the inside. There were long queues for security clearance until somebody bothered to open a second lane. They don’t ask for belts to be taken off (unlike the Chinese embassy in Hong Kong) so the scanning frame will invariably go off for me. They also requested that I take my umbrella out of my bag.
The inflight meal was quite decent.
Most of my chips were shattered in luggage. There’s more cool than cucumber taste. My coughing stopped in Shenzhen – I don’t think the mountain air helped (oh crap new topic at the end).
Destination-objective: 丽江
Was a travelling day. The border crossing was pretty busy as expected. The arrival into China hall was pretty much full. We used the wrong queue but some other foreigners had followed us making it untenable for the border police lady to make us join the back of the correct queue.
Shenzhen Airport security wanted umbrellas outside of bags for the X-ray inspection. I saw remote-controlled tank in the departure lounge for 240 yuan. Somewhat tempting…
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
Lijiang’s airport looks to be a decent attempt at an airport from the outside. The aircraft did actually park at a terminal rather than near a building as was the case in Kunming. However, the luggage carousel and ramp looked like a garage-job.
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| From Lijiang story |
I thought the single Chinese timezone would muck things up a bit but it seems like having bits of rock stick up a few thousand meters helps block out the sunlight at either end of the day.
Here’s Lijiang old town at night:
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| From Lijiang story |
Destination-objective: 云杉坪
Going to the place where the airport bus seemed like a good idea to get directions, however, we were directed onto the route 8 bus which brought us back to the ancient town. Public transport in Lijiang comes ridiculously frequently. Much better than in Melbourne!
The next step was to take the route 7 bus to mountains. But this wasn’t really a public bus. They offered to hide us from the drive-through ticket booth operators for a lower total fee. It was extremely dodgy in the front passenger seat where one girl curled up in the footwell while the driver’s business associate/bored friend/family member sat in the front passenger seat. Another two hid in the back of the van. We later found out that their friends in a different van were caught and didn’t want to pay the entrance fee. I think it was 160 yuan plus 10 yuan bus rather than 100 yuan dodgily.
Route 7 takes you to the starting point for Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and other lofty places above 4000m in the area.
Every stage presents an opportunity for the Chinese to take more money from you:
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| From Lijiang story |
Cable car – on the way down there were some Chinese ladies who wanted to take photos with her. That she can speak Mandarin adds to the shock of seeing a white person.
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| From Lijiang story |
Yunshanping, aka Spruce Meadow, was quite a pleasant place when one manages to get away from the hordes of Chinese. It was a nice patch of meadow, so you can actually take photos of the scenery without having too many trees in the way. Some people were taking more serious photos:
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
Lessons learned during dinner:
Hawkers in Lijiang ancient town come more often than the MTR in Hong Kong
An old lady can use fish to feed a dog. In accepting our refusal to purchase her goods, she requested to feed our leftover fish to her dog.
3 Saturday
Destination-objective: 桥头 and hike
We started the day by walking to the express bus station. The lady was quite blunt in saying there weren’t any tickets left for the 8:30 bus and wasn’t forthcoming with more information. The route 11 bus took us to the other bus station and we waited for the 10:40 Shangrila via Qiaotou. (Route 11 was serviced by double-deckers in a city of one million.)
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
The path up was a bit ambiguous but otherwise uninteresting.
Start of the hike:
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| From Lijiang story |
From hereon in it was rather scenic – not much to talk about but a lot to soak up in terms of scenery.
You really don’t need guides and the horses are only necessary if you want to deny yourself of the full hiking experience/exhaustion. Besides, you can look at other people’s horses/guides to see where to go!
There’s a feature called twenty-eight bends on the map, however, it’s unclear where it starts and certainly felt more than twenty-eight switchbacks.
At the top there was another lady selling some snacks and drinks. Another basket of Snickers bars. I bought an orange drink from her, 500mL for 6 yuan. The markup isn’t too bad. The sugary drink wasn’t such a great idea. But that might have been the thinner mountain air kicking in.
I inquired about her situation and she says it’s 7 km to get to work and she’s been in business for 4 years.
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| From Lijiang story |
4 Sunday
Destination-objective: exit TLG
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
Approach | Southern | Central | Central-Northern | Northern |
Destination | Zhang | Tina (ladder) | To Sean only | Sean |
Cost (yuan) | 10 | 10 | 5 | 10 |
When we actually got down to the river it was… noisy. It looked like insta-death if you jumped in. Plus there were signs explaining that it would be a likely scenario.
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| From Lijiang story |
The guy who took our money for the last stretch walked with us. He even took a photo without asking for more money. He was pretty cool about it all – not having to concentrate on the path and keeping his hands behind his back.
I did expect Sean’s guesthouse to be a bit more lively. Perhaps the website made it out to be grander than it actually is.
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| From Lijiang story |
I fell on the steps here:
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
Destination-objective: Back to丽江
The van out of Wallnut Grove was organised at Sean’s in the morning and took us past a previous landslide but stopped at another one further down. There was some delay in waiting for works to cease before we could rush across.
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
Another van (more money) got us to Qiaotou. It being Qing Ming public holiday, all of the public buses were conveniently full. More money went into a van back to Lijiang. There was a little bit of bargaining involved but I think if they didn’t take so many friends/family then the mass reduction would have saved them money.
Fail driving:
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
I also get my stash of Lay’s Cool Cucumber chips.
6 Tuesday
Destination-objective: random villages
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
7 Wednesday
Destination-objective: Hong Kong
Most of the day was spent bumming around in Lijiang old town.
The bus to the airport is a just-in-time service.
The airport is typical Chinese from the inside. There were long queues for security clearance until somebody bothered to open a second lane. They don’t ask for belts to be taken off (unlike the Chinese embassy in Hong Kong) so the scanning frame will invariably go off for me. They also requested that I take my umbrella out of my bag.
The inflight meal was quite decent.
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| From Lijiang story |
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| From Lijiang story |
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