Author archive
19 October 2015
Today is the big day, both in terms of being a possible highlight for the trip and also in terms duration. We had a Chinese breakfast at the hotel before being run to the park entrance at 0800, arriving there some 20 minutes later. The guidebooks recommend being there for 0700 to avoid the crowds […]
18 October 2015
Above: Lots of hairpin turns. We were pleased that we had been able to change our travel to Jiuzhaigou from 0815 to 0900 yesterday when re-ticketing it as a roundtrip. It allowed us to grab a hotel breakfast before hailing a taxi to the Xinnanmen station. We managed to get a taxi easily. Perhaps it […]
17 October 2015
We repeated the greasy Chinese breakfast at the Ibis before taking a taxi to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. We hadn’t planned on going there as we had been 13 years ago. However, since we had the time (because we went to Leshan yesterday), we thought we would. The taxi ride was […]
16 October 2015
Today, we went to Leshan (which literally means Happy Mountain). I had planned to go tomorrow but that means we’d be visiting on a Saturday and bigger crowds and queues. We thought we could pop into the bus station to get the tickets to Jiuzhaigou (departing in a couple of days time) and then head […]
15 October 2015
Above: Chengdu’s pedestrian mall by night as we arrive. Hedonistic morning We had a lazy start to the day. I made muesli and yoghurt for breakfast before packing out and checking out at 1000. We could have kept the room for a couple more hours but we wanted to fit in a massage and lunch […]
14 October 2015
New territory for me I thought we’d explore the French Concession around Huaihai Road today as it would be new to me. We took the metro there. On board, Kim noticed a lady with red expensive-looking shoes but wondered how they could stay on. It was only the toes that were slipped into the shoe. […]
13 October 2015
On board We took off late as a last-minute illness stopped one passenger from travelling and his/her luggage had to be offloaded. Seated near the front, the 787 wasn’t as quiet as my Scoot flight last month where I had been seated overwing. This felt on the quiet side of normal. After the supper service, […]
12 October 2015
Tonight at 23:59, we depart for Shanghai to begin another journey in the Middle Kingdom. At the airport, the kiosks wouldn’t issue our boarding passes as we were on standby. A staff member checked us in immediately; we didn’t have to wait till flight close-off 45 minutes prior to departure. That allowed us to check […]
7 September 2015
Home time today! I fly back to Auckland after just over 24h stop in Sydney. I took the shuttle from the hostel to the airport instead of the train as it was AUD7 cheaper (AUD12 instead of nearly AUD18). It takes just a little bit longer; both modes have their overhead times (eg walking to/from […]
6 September 2015
Scoot check-in for my 0145 flight to Sydney was swift without any queue as I turned up early. I stayed landside till I got hungry so I could have a snack of McDonald’s prawn burger and sweet potato chips. On board the aircraft, the doors closed and I was surprised to see so many spare […]