Irreverently irrelevant.
Sysadmin, developer, web dude in a science research organisation. WordPress, Japan, planes, trains, Arduino, Raspberry Pi/Pico, puns, dad jokes, etc
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Bonkers in Honkers
I told B that we should go sightseeing during the weekdays so that the sights would not be crowded with locals. It’s the weekend and I don’t think any local was sightseeing. No, they were out shopping like us. Such crowds! No sightseeing for us during our last full day in Hong Kong. Instead we…
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Hanging by a thread
The thread was more of a fat steel cable and there was more than one of them, but it still looked small in comparison to the height above ground. We were travelling on the Ngong Ping 360 cable car up to the Tian Tan Buddha statue looking over Lantau Island. The entire ride takes about…
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All manner of transport
During our time on this trip we have caught all manner of transport, from a trishaw in Beijing to the Maglev in Shanghai. We’ve been on a hydrofoil on the Yangtze and a couple of sleeper trains across China. And many flights with more to come. Today was special for the number of different modes…
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Pollution
We have experienced every type of pollution during our time in China. Air pollution so bad we can barely speak our throats are so irritated. The water we drink is always boiled or bottled. And as for visual pollution, well the list of ugliness is endless here. Guilin’s air has been the cleanest of our…
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No update
Network doesn’t work in our new room so no update tonight. Noisy Cantonese drove us out. Will take revenge tomorrow in HK.
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Floating on air
Is 431km/h the fastest we have ever travelled on land? I’m not certain it counts as we were actually floating above the ground. Today we caught the Maglev, the magnetic levitation train, between Shanghai and Pudong Airport. I think we finally worked out Shanghai metro’s ticketing system. You can’t reuse your ticket when interchanging between…
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Route Canal
Canals evoke the image of romantic travel in me. We passed through part of China’s extensive canal network during our approach to Shanghai. It looked very much alive, with barges and low boats carrying raw materials and finished products. Old wooden sampans moored beside decaying buildings or under low bridges illustrated the long history of…
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The Bizarre and the Bazaar
It’s much less effort to walk ten kilometres of the Great Wall than to spend an hour standing around clothes shopping. Oh my sore feet! At least the pain in the hip [pocket] was only mild, this being China. We were both feeling much better about China after a good rest and late morning! The…
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Shanghaied!
Something just snapped in me yesterday as we travelled through the yellow rapeseed fields from Yichang to Nanjing. Maybe it was the smoking, spitting, shouting, shoving migrant workers at Yichang railway stations. Or the polluted air, the disturbing sameness to the cities and the farms. Or frustration at my inability to speak the language or…
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Three Gorges
“I haven’t had enough sleep!” screamed my body as the alarm clock rang. No choice! We were meeting our guide Shirley down at the hotel lobby at 6am for our tour of the Three Gorges after only 3 hours sleep. It was misty, or smoggy, as usual as we drove out in our van on…