Note this is our new blog as from January 2010. For previous entries, please read our other blogs as shown in our e-mail
China Travels | Phil & Sabine's Excellent Adventure
Jan-Feb 2010 - Winter Holiday Part 1 (the cold bit)
3 Jan 2010 A couple of Chinese colleagues delivered us to the West bus station where, at around 12.40, we boarded the sleeper bus bound for Beijing: shoes off and into a plastic bag before reclining in a relatively comfortable but way too short berth. We waved adieu to friends and headed out at 1pm thereafter stopping every few hours for a 'pit stop' and sustenance. An impromptu stop at around 6pm due to an overturned truck was welcomed as all were overdue for a ‘wizz’. The 9 o’clock break signaled a swift pot noodle before hitting the road again and the continual fight to gain a comfortable position in the undersized bed. Following the 2am stop the temperature dropped significantly with ice on the inside of the windows making sleep virtually impossible. |
4 Jan 2010
Daylight eventually came and we were all deposited at Liu liqiao long-distance bus station at 8am. We decided a taxi the best bet so after haggling a driver down to 40¥, the short trip took us to the nearest subway station, where a dozen or so stops East along line1, brought us to the short but snowy walk to the warmth of the Wangfujing hostel. After a wash ‘n’ brush up we wandered out for some grub which we found in the form of hot, spicy noodles. The afternoon and evening were spent in the hostel due to the nippy -14 degrees C outside – pizza and cold beer being the draw.
The Houtai area was our focus in the afternoon. This is dominated by three lakes where there’s boating and lots of wildlife. Not today. The lakes were frozen and looked like snowy parks with the boats ‘locked’ until Spring. These ‘ice parks’ were now ice rinks with ice chairs, ice bikes and the more usual skating. It was becoming colder now. In need of more layers and food we found a reasonably priced noodle bar, filled up and headed back to the hostel. The evening necessitated the requisite pizza and beer – well, it would've been rude not to.
6 Jan 2010
After a leisurely zao fan we trudged to the tube with our heavy cases and made for the airport for 11.30ish. Our Boeing 321 was two hours late. Eventually we settled to a movie and anticipated lunch. A dozy 10 hours later we touched down in a nippy Charles de Gaule airport to discover our connecting flight had missed to miss its flight window to London due to snow at Heathrow. In the end we reached Heathrow too late to stay with Smiff and Richard (sorry guys!) but stayed at the Ibis near terminal 1. ‘twas expensive but every cloud… we managed a free dinner and due to Bine’s quick thinking, made sandwiches for the onward journey at breakfast.
7th Jan – 15th Jan: Next stop Beverley
After checking out of our hotel, we met Smiff and Richard in Central London. Whilst in China, we had booked some tickets online for our London –Beverley journey. Booking in advance had saved us some money and we were quite pleased with our forward planning. We had booked them 2 months prior, something that is unthinkable in China! We even thought ahead and had them delivered to Smiff’s home address knowing that we would be staying with her, or so we thought! And so Smiff and Richard kindly met us in London and brought with them the tickets that would transport us up North. It felt good to be going north again and great to see the family and of course Jazzy. Our welcome was complete when we realised that mum had made fish and chips for tea. Perfect! Beverley looked most picturesque covered in snow!
The following day was spent travelling back down south to Stamford for an emergency dental appointment. I had crunched on a nut in December and lost a filling and part of my tooth as result. The dental appointment went well (as well as could be expected as dentists are not my favourite places) and after checking in on our storage, we headed off to Phil’s mum and dad’s for a surprise visit. A cup of tea and a slice of cake later we were back on the road again, bound for Beverley. Usually the journey takes 2 hours. Not on this day. All was going well until a heavy snow fall soon put an end to that. The last 20 minutes of the journey took 4 hours. The less said the better! At 10.30 we both sat down to fish and chips - this was our tea, or was it supper?
The next few days were spent shopping and catching up with friends and family. A leisurely Sunday afternoon at Karen’s was great. Coffee and cake – and lots of it!
A day trip to York for shopping and a visit to the Travel Clinic for a Jap. Encephalitis booster were also on the agenda. Since being back a great deal of our time has been spent eating, drinking, chatting and shopping. I’d forgotten just how good things taste… chocolate, cheese, Indian food….. the list goes on!
16th Jan – 18th Jan: Manchester a go go!
Up early to catch the train to Manchester and then met at Picadilly by C and A. Toasties for lunch – not had them in years(!) and then over to Deb's and Stewie’s for the afternoon and a bit of a party. The afternoon very quickly became the evening and our plans for venturing into town rapidly disappeared as the question “Who wants a Margarita?” was asked. Say no more! Great to see everyone and catch up.
On Sunday, we headed off to Shaun and Bernie’s where we ate a fab lunch and continued to eat and then drink and then eat again. There was a definite pattern. Our hosts had very kindly bought in lots of cheese which I am ashamed to say could not get enough of. Phil and I also discovered the delights of Tate and Lyle treacle ice cream. Nice one Bernie. What a great day/evening spent with Shaun, Bernie, Jay, Andy and C and A. It wasn’t even spoiled by the mention of a board game…. At least it wasn’t Trivial Pursuit!
19th Jan- 21st Jan: Back to Beverley
The next few days were spent organising our trip to Vietnam and sorting visas and flights. We had a nice afternoon at Hornsea where Jazzy proved that she can still tear around like a youngster and frolic in the sand. We also just generally pottered, went for lunchtime drinks, etc. We both thought this is how it must feel when you are retired. That’s our image anyway and we won’t be told otherwise!! Apologies to those of you who read this and who disagree……
After a leisurely zao fan we trudged to the tube with our heavy cases and made for the airport for 11.30ish. Our Boeing 321 was two hours late. Eventually we settled to a movie and anticipated lunch. A dozy 10 hours later we touched down in a nippy Charles de Gaule airport to discover our connecting flight had missed to miss its flight window to London due to snow at Heathrow. In the end we reached Heathrow too late to stay with Smiff and Richard (sorry guys!) but stayed at the Ibis near terminal 1. ‘twas expensive but every cloud… we managed a free dinner and due to Bine’s quick thinking, made sandwiches for the onward journey at breakfast.
7th Jan – 15th Jan: Next stop Beverley
After checking out of our hotel, we met Smiff and Richard in Central London. Whilst in China, we had booked some tickets online for our London –Beverley journey. Booking in advance had saved us some money and we were quite pleased with our forward planning. We had booked them 2 months prior, something that is unthinkable in China! We even thought ahead and had them delivered to Smiff’s home address knowing that we would be staying with her, or so we thought! And so Smiff and Richard kindly met us in London and brought with them the tickets that would transport us up North. It felt good to be going north again and great to see the family and of course Jazzy. Our welcome was complete when we realised that mum had made fish and chips for tea. Perfect! Beverley looked most picturesque covered in snow!
The following day was spent travelling back down south to Stamford for an emergency dental appointment. I had crunched on a nut in December and lost a filling and part of my tooth as result. The dental appointment went well (as well as could be expected as dentists are not my favourite places) and after checking in on our storage, we headed off to Phil’s mum and dad’s for a surprise visit. A cup of tea and a slice of cake later we were back on the road again, bound for Beverley. Usually the journey takes 2 hours. Not on this day. All was going well until a heavy snow fall soon put an end to that. The last 20 minutes of the journey took 4 hours. The less said the better! At 10.30 we both sat down to fish and chips - this was our tea, or was it supper?
The next few days were spent shopping and catching up with friends and family. A leisurely Sunday afternoon at Karen’s was great. Coffee and cake – and lots of it!
A day trip to York for shopping and a visit to the Travel Clinic for a Jap. Encephalitis booster were also on the agenda. Since being back a great deal of our time has been spent eating, drinking, chatting and shopping. I’d forgotten just how good things taste… chocolate, cheese, Indian food….. the list goes on!
16th Jan – 18th Jan: Manchester a go go!
Up early to catch the train to Manchester and then met at Picadilly by C and A. Toasties for lunch – not had them in years(!) and then over to Deb's and Stewie’s for the afternoon and a bit of a party. The afternoon very quickly became the evening and our plans for venturing into town rapidly disappeared as the question “Who wants a Margarita?” was asked. Say no more! Great to see everyone and catch up.
On Sunday, we headed off to Shaun and Bernie’s where we ate a fab lunch and continued to eat and then drink and then eat again. There was a definite pattern. Our hosts had very kindly bought in lots of cheese which I am ashamed to say could not get enough of. Phil and I also discovered the delights of Tate and Lyle treacle ice cream. Nice one Bernie. What a great day/evening spent with Shaun, Bernie, Jay, Andy and C and A. It wasn’t even spoiled by the mention of a board game…. At least it wasn’t Trivial Pursuit!
19th Jan- 21st Jan: Back to Beverley
The next few days were spent organising our trip to Vietnam and sorting visas and flights. We had a nice afternoon at Hornsea where Jazzy proved that she can still tear around like a youngster and frolic in the sand. We also just generally pottered, went for lunchtime drinks, etc. We both thought this is how it must feel when you are retired. That’s our image anyway and we won’t be told otherwise!! Apologies to those of you who read this and who disagree……
6th Jan – 18th Jan: Manchester a go go!
Up early to catch the train to Manchester and then met at Picadilly by C and A. Toasties for lunch – not had them in years(!) and then over to Debs and Stewie’s for the afternoon and a bit of a party. The afternoon very quickly became the evening and our plans for venturing into town very quickly disappeared as the question “Who wants a Margarita?” was asked. Say no more! Great to see everyone and catch up. On Sunday, we headed off to Shaun and Bernie’s were we ate a fab lunch and continued to eat and then drink and then eat again. There was a definite pattern. Our hosts had very kindly bought in lots of cheese which I ashamed to say could not get enough of. Phil and I also discovered the delights of Tate and Lyle treacle ice –cream. Nice one Bernie. What a great day/evening spent with Shaun, Bernie, Jay, Andy and C and A. It wasn’t even spoiled by the mention of a board game…. At least it wasn’t Trivial Pursuit! |
22nd Jan – 25th Jan: Bourne/Stamford
The weekend saw us on the road again and this time to see friends in Bourne and Stamford. The weekend started well with meeting Lia and Kevin in the Tobie Norris for a couple of drinks and a good old chat. My, my, I’d forgotten how good how good Aspell’s cider tastes. They then very kindly took us to Nina’s for a fish and chip supper, a few drinks and of course a good old chin wag! Saturday night we went over to Stamford to meet up with Ged for a night out. As is often the case when I go “out” with Ged, the bottle of gin gets opened and then the thought of going out is then, well, forgotten about. All you need is good company for a good evening.
Sunday, we were back at Nina’s and she had done us proud by organising a party of friends from RMTC. A leisurely afternoon was then spent, you’ve guessed, eating, drinking and chatting. Fantastic food. Lovely to see everybody again and hear about what they had been up to in the last year. Thanks again for your company and hospitality, Nina!
25th Jan- 30th Jan: Last leg of the UK visit
After Bourne we headed over to Stamford to catch up with Julia and the gang. A chat and a cup of tea later we were on our way to Phil’s mum and dad’s where we spent our last few days in the UK before flying back to Beijing. We had a nice day at Heacham Beach and of course the obligatory fish and chip dinner which compliments any visit to the seaside. As has been with all of our friends and family, how lovely it was to see you all again. Thanks for making our trip back to the UK so special and thanks for all that lovely food. Any weight that we may have lost has very quickly and very easily been gained. And it was no trouble at all!! |
30th Jan – 2nd Feb: From London to Beijing
After catching a train, two planes, and then a metro and oh yes, several hours later, we finally arrived in the Chaoyang District in Beijing. We stayed a couple of nights with a Chinese bloke who we had contacted via the website “couchsurfing”. Despite the jetlag, we went for a Korean meal together near where he lived and chatted about China and England until the wee hours. The following day we did some sightseeing around the Sanliturn area and then went out for another meal with Tiger, our host. Our professions were very similar and so what was supposed to be an early night turned into another late one, and a few beers were of course drunk ……. |
3rd– 5th Feb “I’ve bin” to Harbin!
After our farewells and “thank yous” to Tiger we caught the day train to Harbin. Just in time in fact. I had forgotten how stressful it was rushing for a train, convinced that you would not make it. With literally seconds to spare we jumped on and found our couchette. Two top bunks, not the best but we were lucky to get any tickets because of the large amount of people travelling to get back to their hometown for the Spring Festival. One nice man kept on smiling at me and then eventually came over to where we were and bought us some beer so we could toast one another. With limited Chinese from us and no English from him, we spent the next half an hour smiling and laughing at one another. That can happen a lot in China! 1,249 km and 10 hours later, we arrived in Harbin. Blimey it was cold! |
Our hotel was basic and the hotel staff was clearly not used to dealing with foreigners with little Chinese. After spending a good half an hour convincing them that we really had booked a room with them, we got taken to our room. The next day we booked a couple of tours; one to the “Ice Festival” for that evening and managed to find a wang ba – an internet cafe to book our flight to Saigon and some accommodation. The “Ice Festival” is an annual event in Harbin where international iconic monuments/buildings are made out of ice and then illuminated to give special effects. It was a very, very, very cold evening but worth it. Despite Harbin having lots of snow, as soon as it falls, it is swept away. So apart from at the festival area which was just outside the city centre, no snow could be seen anywhere!
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