The Sandpit - Dubai arrival

16 December 2011

Arrived back in to warmth, even though it is winter in the UAE now. It was very hard fighting the urge to pull out my camera in customs to take photos of all of the guys working there, wearing their dish-dashes.

Even though the UAE is a Muslim country and they don't celebrate Christmas, there were still big Christmas displays around the place. My first day started off at a Christmas party at the Off Shore Boating club, which was definitely a nice way to be introduced to the country. Santa arrived on a boat, and my 8mo cousin Zoe got her first picture with Santa. Then it was off to Mall of the Emirates, which has Ski Dubai, a massive indoor ski field in the mall. 

I spent a couple of days working on my tan, before heading off on the most important adventure - acquiring alcohol! This adventure is known as the Barracuda Run. To be able to purchase alcohol in Dubai, you need to apply for a license (hotel's are licensed, so don't fret, you still have hundreds of bars, pubs and nightclubs) which proves you are not Muslim (and then it is expensive - there isn't beers and wines in the supermarkets like NZ, or a bottle-o on every corner like Oz). We planned our adventure, heading to Barracuda means driving through Sharjah. Sharjah is known as one of the stricter Emirates with their view on clothing, cohabatiation and alcohol. Barracuda is a hotel that sells alcohol and is about an hour and fifteen minutes drive from Dubai. If you know someone that is going to Barracuda, you are usually very quick to put your orders in. I was expecting a dodgy little shop with ridiculous prices, but instead I got a nice spacious air-conditioned modern oasis, with prices starting at 30dirhams (around $10AUD) for wine and 60dhms for a 1lt bottle of Absolute Vodka ($20AUD) - the cheapest alcohol in the country, and even beating duty free prices. My Aunty and I stocked up on alcoholic goodness to the point where our trolley was over full. 

Our trolley at Barracuda

Usually you pass through Emirate of Sharjah, which is a dry Emirate and you can be arrested or fined if you get caught with alcohol in your car (Barracuda Bandits - people that follow you from Barracuda and will bump your car, and threaten to call the police, then accept a bribe), but luckily for us, there is the 611, which bypasses Sharjah all together so you don't have to be worried about passing the dry Emirate. My life was now back on track with a case of red wine, and getting to see camel's crossing the 12 lane highway on our journey back.  What more could a girl ask for?

A camel! A camel!

Burj Al Arab

We had a few days to practice having our Christmas day at the beach, deciding that Kite beach was our favourite, a little down from the Burj Al Arab so that you don't have the steady flow of tourists coming through. Kite beach is known for the hire of water sports activities, and kite surfing on windy days. The beach has changing rooms, showers and toilets (it's too cold to go in the water to pee at the moment - jokes!). The locals and expats all enjoy the atmosphere with volleyball and a blow up football pitch covered in water and detergent for the children of all ages. Christmas day arrived and we headed to Kite beach wearing our Santa hats along with the other hat donning families to celebrate Christmas at the beach. We had our pot luck picnic, along with some of my Aunties workmates (and now my friends). A new experience for my American friends but for my family here in Dubai we felt like we were back in the Pacific.  We topped the day off with a dinner with everyone at Naomi and Casey's. It was a great Christmas. So great, that we repeated our plans on New Years Eve, except had everyone around to our place after the beach. 

Kite Beach

Zoe in her Santa hat

On one of my first few nights in Dubai, I got to catch up with an old school friend Ritchie, who introduced me to Barasti. A bar that would become my local. Situated right on the beach near the palm, it is a favourite among expats and one of the top bars in Dubai. A great idea in Dubai is ladies nights. The main ladies night is a Tuesday, but you can get other deals throughout the week. Timeout magazine has a great list of the deals that you can get on what days, usually ranging from 3 free glasses of bubbles between a couple of hours, right through to unlimited selected drinks for the whole night. Of course, where there are lots of ladies, the men follow, so they can tend to be a bit of a meat market. Great fun for a very cheap night out though! 

Barasti

Chikity China

My blog for OE Travel Blog on China... 
3-16 Dec 2011

China hadn’t always been on the top of my list for places to visit, but once I decided I was setting out to see a bit of the world, I thought it would be a great opportunity to see my family who live in Wuxi (pronounced Wushi).

Entrance to Nanag Chung Xi with Karena

Arriving in Shanghai, they had organised for a driver to meet me at the airport, which I am grateful for, as I don’t think I was prepared for the language barrier to be as hard it was. Wuxi is about an hour and a half northwest (driving) from Shanghai, and was quite a small town until the last 20 years. Wuxi is dubbed as the “new Shanghai”.

Some of the attractions that Wuxi has to offer are Nanag Chung Xi Temple Markets, which as the name suggests includes, a temple and markets. You can also get a canal boat ride, and cruise down the canal and see all of the houses backing on to it, with all of their red lanterns hanging about.

About half an hour out of town is the Grand Buddha at Lingshan, which is 65m tall, and is one of the tallest Buddha statues in the world at present. It is set in a park with a giant lotus fountain, which opens every half an hour and a little Buddha comes up, as well as temples and shows, and to the excitement of my 10yo cousin, feeding pigeons.  We had organised a driver for the day, and headed to Wuxi Zoo after the Buddha, as was not far from it. The zoo I can say is probably not worth visiting. The enclosures were dull and the animals didn’t look too happy.

Giant Buddha

The Bund

One of the great things about China, are their high-speed trains. I don’t know why, but when I used to think of train travel in China, I would look back to movies like Shanghai Knights. That theory got blown out the water when my Aunty and I took a day trip to Shanghai from Wuxi. The train takes around 35 minutes, and gets to speeds over 300kmph. I think the fare is about 60RMB each way. Once we arrived in Shanghai we hopped on another metro to Peoples Square and then walked down to The Bund for the token tourist shot with the Shanghai skyline. After that we walked back to Peoples Square (which also contains a park and museum etc) and jumped on another Metro to the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. Not to look at the museum though, but spend hours walking around the markets haggling for lower prices over everything.  We saw a lot of people on the train back to Wuxi, who had brought a suitcase while at the markets and filled them to the brim. Remember – like any Asian country, haggle for a price you’re happy with and don’t be afraid to walk away.

My next adventure was to Beijing. After comparing the overnight/high-speed trains, I decided that it was cheaper to fly. The flight was around 500RMB. I had braced myself for the cold, as I had been watching the temperature in Wuxi, Beijing was about 10 degrees below that (-8!). However, upon arriving, I found that it was a beautiful day, with crisp air, but warm winter sun to warm you up. I got a taxi from the airport to the Hostel I was staying (365 Inn, which had been recommended to me) and checked in. I had arrived a bit before the room was available, so hung out at “Helen’s” the restaurant/bar that is at the Hostel – a great way to meet people and even if you are sitting there alone, there is wifi in the main area, and writing all over the walls which can be quite entertaining to read.

I set off to find Alice’s Tea House (turn right from the Hostel, veer left when a small fork comes in the road, and there is red lanterns out the front, about 50m down the road). I had been recommended Alice by a friend if I wanted to book any tours. Alice will give you better rates, and she even offered to accompany me to the Chinese Acrobats since I wasn’t too sure where it was. Essentially – the tour that I booked through Alice was the same as the one the Hostel offered (both 250RMB, same van etc), except the Hostel included breakfast (McDonalds) and didn’t include the entrance fee (50RMB). I definitely recommend booking through Alice, and just take fruit/snacks with you. Even better, she pours you tea while she’s arranging it all for you.

Staying at 365 Inn was great, they had good food in the Helen’s, and by my last night we had made a huge table of friends to drink. Next door there is also a restaurant that does Peking duck, which is very good. We got a bit carried away and ordered 8 dishes including the whole Pecking duck, between 4 of us.

The next day I set off to the Jingshanling part of the Great Wall. This is the less popular tour as it is around 3.5 hours drive from Beijing. We arrived at the wall and jumped out of the van, to be greeted by the icy cold air. All layers were on and started walking up to the first tower, which is about 20 mins of hill and stairs. The local farming community subsidise their income by following you offering you souvenirs. These people do not let up. They follow you until the end. Acting as a tour guide at times, and then taking you down the shortcut on your way back down. Of course you end up feeling sorry for them, as they spent 4 hours following you up and down stairs (some extremely steep), then won’t accept a tip. Just make sure that you still haggle a price if you decide to purchase something (unless you’re happy to pay what they ask). Legend has it there is even an alcohol seller at turret 4 who will walk with you until you decide to stop.

As you can imagine, the wall is surreal. Being the only tour group there, you also get amazing photo opportunities. You trek along the wall for about an hour and a half until you reach the “flower tower”, and if you want to you can continue along to the “five window tower”. I made it a couple of towers past the “flower tower” and then sat down in the beautiful winter sun with two girls from Belgium and we shared our fruit and travel stories for an hour. We then took the short cut down the hill, which had snow all over the track where the sun had not yet reached, and made our way to the restaurant had some lunch, which is provided.

The following day was time for me to hit Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and Jingshan Hill. Luckily this was about a ten-minute walk from the Hostel. Tiananmen Square is full with tourist, as is the Forbidden City. Looking back I didn’t really explore too much of the Forbidden City, just strolled through the middle mainly. It was very cheap to get in to Jingshan Hill, and I wish that it had been a clearer day as you couldn’t really see back over to Forbidden City. It was neat walking around Jingshan Park as there were all of the local elderly Chinese, singing and dancing around in groups.

Overall in China, you need to be organized. It helps to have hotel and destinations already written in Chinese. Some restaurants don’t have any English (or pictures) in their menus, so it isn’t an easy task to even get some pork dumplings. My family have little cards they carry in their wallets with translations for food items, so you kind of know what you’re getting off the menu.

-       Don’t be surprised with the smog.

-       You need to obtain a visa before entering China
-   In main tourist areas, there is a lot of spitting, and westerners may be stared at. Also don't be surprised if a kid drops their pants and urinates in the street

Hong Kong/Macau

30 November - 3 December 2011

In Kowloon going to get some dinner

It was pretty impressive landing at Hong Kong airport and getting a train between your airport gate and the main airport. After clearing customs I decided that I'd get the bus to my accommodation, as it had a stop right outside. Of course, I ended up staying the infamous Chung King mansions, which are basically tiny shoebox rooms (literally my suitcase could hardly fit in to the room) but a semi reasonable price for HK. By this time it was past 11pm, so I wandered across to get some food and made the most of my stately room (insert sarcasm here). 

Venetian

The following day I was off to Macau. Not that I like to gamble, but I thought I would treat myself to a night at the Venetian. After dropping my bag off to Scott's office, I found my way to the Macau ferry terminal. Was nice to see a "no spitting" sign up inside the ferry terminal. The ferry took around an hour, and was nothing to exciting to see. A lot of smog covered HK, and there was not much to see on mainland China.

All I can say about my room at the Venetian is WOW. As I walked in the door I couldn't believe that I had such a big room to myself. After running myself a delicious bath, I was ready to go and explore. I managed to come across the shopping area, that had a canal going through it with gondola rides, and a fake sky ceiling running through the middle of it. Next on my list of things to find was a bar. Mission accomplished, complete with a dance show. Then it was time to really adventure out of the casino and see what else Macau had. 

Walking through the casino out to the front, I noticed that there were not many westerners. Pretty much none. Until I got to a crossing and 2 American guys  were waiting there to cross the road. They kindly gave me directions to the bar in City of Dreams, the casino across the road, and after they'd gone for a walk around they joined me for a drink. It turns out they worked for the Venetian and lived in Macau, so they became my tour guides for the night. We managed to get to about half a dozen casino's, and have dinner at Wynn (all on the Venetian, thank you very much!), the "race track" which is not where horses go around, and the fountain and tree of life display at Wynn. Who knows what time I managed to retire to my amazing room, but it was heaven! Was very hard to turn down the offer of staying on the weekend, being put up in a better room. 

My amazing bed!

At the bar at the Venetian

Gondola inside Venetian

The ferry ride back to HK, I luckily got a seat next to the only person who managed to get sea sick. Her spewing in to her sick bag, plus my slight hangover caused an uncomfortable amount of gagging for about half of the hour ride. Great fun! 

Fountain display at Wynn

For the first time in my trip I hadn't booked accommodation and thought that I would wing my second night in HK. The morning I left Macau, I had to bite the bullet and ended up paying a lot more than what I had for my suite at the Venetian, for something that was tiny, but at least in a better location than Chung King Mansions. That night I met up with Scott and Anna-Claire and their friends, and we managed to drink until 5am in the morning. I was certainly in no state when I awoke. Cold sweats, vomiting and rocking back and forward was not really my ideal start to the day, but I somehow made it to the airport, and was on my way to China. The time of traveling on my own coming to an end for now and in to the lovely home of my Aunty and Uncle in China. 

Thailand

27-30 November 2011

After waiting at the guesthouse for over an hour and a half to be picked up for the bus to Bangkok from Siem Reap ($12USD), I discovered that there was an Irish girl (Orlaith) who was taking the same bus. Finally arriving at the bus, it appeared that we were the last ones to be picked up, and both of the buses seemed to be full. After a lot of back and forth between the 2 buses, the bus driver exclaimed "it's ok, we have plastic seat for you. Only hour and half to border, new bus after that". We then got the joy of carrying our little plastic seats on to the bus and wedge them in the aisle. Not only did it take closer to 4 hours than the original hour and a half, but they decided to stop 3 times, so we would have to carry our seats off for people to get out, and then wait for everyone to file back on so we could carry our seats back down to our positions. 


Finally reaching the border, after glaring at people sleeping in their seats for hours, it was time to drag my 24kgs of luggage between Cambodia and Thailand. The line up on the Cambodian side was very hot and sweaty, standing out in the direct heat with no air con or fans. A 10 minute walk down to the Thailand border and I was ready to just turn around and stay in Cambodia for the rest of my life. The wait outside didn't take too long, but then there was about an hour wait inside, thank goodness for the air con. 


We made our way to the vans that were to take us the rest of the way to Bangkok, and surprise surprise, we had another food stop. Giving in to my food strike on buses, I got some delicious pad thai. Only fitting to get some pad thai on first arrival to Thailand. Orlaith and I got bundled in to the front of another mini van and we were finally heading towards Bangkok, discovering on the way that we were both staying at NapPark Hostel. 

Our crew at Khao San Road

Sandbagged shops

I had originally thought that I wouldn't like Bangkok, but how wrong I was! We checked in to our backpackers (my first dorm room!) and showered and met back up to get some dinner. More street food, from Khao San Road and we found a pub to eat it at with some Singha's and buckets of mojitos. Of course there had been flooding the previous week, with shops still having sandbags out the front of them, and with that, we decided we should sneak in to the closed off river to check it out. To much disappointment the river wasn't even breaching it's banks and the only evidence of flooding was the fast flowing water. The hours flew by and before I knew it, it was way past my bedtime as I had a 10am transfer to the airport so I could get to Patong for some quality beach time.


After some luggage rearranging to get the check in to 20kgs, I was finally sitting at the airport gate to get to the beach. It was kind of awkward sitting at the airport not knowing where to look with numerous couples consisting of grey haired gentlemen with young thai girls. Hmmm. 


Patong was nice with relaxing on the beach, getting served beers (as well as being asked if you wanted to buy everything else under the sun) as you lay there in the sun. After contemplating whether to go to Ko Phi Phi for a day, I decided to save that for next time, and just made the most of the beach and the street food. 

More street food!

Patong Beach