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So, preparations for my next overseas trip are coming along very well; most things are sorted out, with just a few minor things to get before I go. At the very end of November I'm heading back over to South America. The basic itinerary is:

1) Walking in Torres del Paine national park
2) Cruise to Antarctica (going up and down the Antarctic Peninsular)
3) Galapagos Cruise (over Christmas and New Years period)
4) Travelling overland from Santiago to Buenos Aires.

The itinerary is a bit scattered: I was thinking of excluding Galapagos from this trip (ie: staying in the South / centre of the continent). But: I may not be heading back to South America again (other parts of the world to see), so I figured that it's effectively an extra day or two in transit than what I otherwise would have had, so it's probably worth it.

Not long now!

China Notes

A while back (!) (end of 2005), I wrote some more detailed notes about some (only very few) parts of my China trip. These are completely incomplete! I had them as a separate blog on the system, but never published. I want to get rid of this blog now, but don't want to delete these...

Train Travelling

Trains seemed to be a great way of travelling long distances relatively cheaply.

There are usually four classses of travel (in order of improving quality / cost): hard seat; soft seat; hard sleeper; soft sleeper. The hard / soft ness is related to how much space / privacy you have. Soft seaters are sometimes not available.

For any travel that is of a reasonably long distance that is an overnight train, a sleeper ticket would be much prefered. I never travelled overnight on a seated ticket, but walked through them - a sleeper ticket would be much more comfortable.

The sleeper carriages have an isle down one side of the carriage, with the bunks off to the side. In the hard sleepers, there are 6 bunks to a bay (top, middle and bottom on two sides). Bagage goes ontop of racks which are above the isle. In the soft sleepers, there are 4 bunks to a bay (top and bottom), each bay has a door that is lockable from the inside - much more privacy. Baggage goes ontop of the isle still, but inside your cabin - so it is more secure.

It would seem that for hard sleepers, having a bottom bunk wouldn't be as desirable as a middle or top bunk - as anyone and everyone sits on them if they want.

If I were to be travelling by myself, I'd probably go the hard sleeper - on a top or middle bunk. A soft sleeper cabin shared with 3 other chain smokers wouldn't be very desirable...

Train stations - they're full of people rushing to their trains, waiting or milling around. Heaps of people - a great place for pick-pocketers!. You have to get your gear X-rayed before you get into the building usually. Once you've got your ticket, it's fairly easy to look up your train number with the platform number and departure time, along with the seat/bed number.

If you don't speak Mandarin, you'd have to be careful about when they call for people to get on board (it's not always announced in English). When you get on board or just after boarding (settling in); a train attendant comes around to check your ticket and swap it with a plastic credit card sized card that's got your train and seat / bed details. You need to keep this to return to them to get your ticket back when the journey ends. Apparently it's used so they can tell who's actually on the train so they can upgrade people if required.

It's usually a pretty good idea to get on board as quickly as possible, especially if your in the hard sleeper class, as the luggage storage space on the rack above the isle tends to run out.

Ear plugs are fantastic for overnight trains.

Brisbane To Beijing

When I got picked up from the house in the mid evening, it was raining a bit - keeping it cool.

I was pretty nervous - just going through my list of things to take - had I forgotten anything, had I done everything on my jobs list.

I got my ticket from the Malaysian Airlines desk. I also picked up my voucher for overnight stay on the return leg. No problems.

We (L and I) had coffee in one of the lounges, and then I left - going down the escalators through the immigration check. I was slightly worried when I realised that the flight had already been called (I had missed it earlier), and that everyone on the flight had already lined up, and were boarding. There was still enough time for to get to the toilet before I left Australia. (Well, technically I already had, as I had already passed through immigration).

The flight from Brisbane to Kuala Lumpar was fairly boring. I was able to sleep for most of it - which was good, considering it was a 11:50 pm flight. We had personal TV's (movies, news, games) in the seat in front - avoid using it after the initial play. The flight itself was pretty perfectly fine. Given it was Malaysian Airlines, they had muslim prayer cards and an audio channel of koranic verses: I was out of my usual anglo brand of Australian culture.

The flight touched down at Kuala Lumpa International Airport (KLIA) in the early morning. The sun was just rising. There is a satellite terminal that is a shuttle train ride away from the main terminal that is shaped in a + sign. For this stopover (of just a few hours) in KL I stayed in the sateliite terminal. It had prayer rooms, and duty free places to buy alcohol, perfumes, etc. It dawned on me after the first time I did it that I should never spit - even in the toilets...

There was a free internet connection available in the terminal - there were 3 or so groups of 4 computers. However, about half of them weren't working. The keyboards were sunken and on the dodgy side as well.

The flight from Kuala Lumpar to Beijing was ok, nothing fantastic. I was towards the back of the plane, so it was on the noisy side. It was a smaller plane than the first - no personal TVs. It had more of a Han Chinese feel to it than the previous flight (that had a Muslim feel). Also, Mandarin was one of the languages on the voice-over, replacing Dutch on the previous flight.

The flatness of the plain surrounding Beijing was apparent when flying over it.

Beijing

Getting through Beijing airport was fairly easy - it seems to be a pretty decent airport. There were clear English signs that told you were to go. The queues at the immigration hall were reasonably long (for both Chinese nationals - yes, they were queueing... and foreigners).

It took about 1/2 hour to get through immigration, ok I suppose. The quaratine and health checks were very simple - just hand to the person waiting a form that I'd filled out earlier on the plane... Australia has pretty strong quarantine in comparison.

After getting into the main waiting area, I was greeted by what seemed to be a million people asking me if I wanted a taxi ride to the city. No thanks (or something close to buyao). I found a guy with my name on it - my pickup.

I figured it was easier to pay an extra AUD$5 or so more than a taxi fair and not have the worry of not ending at the right spot. I made a bit of a fool out of myself when I went to the drivers seat to get in the car: in China, cars are driven on the right side of the road - opposite to what I was used to. During the trip to the hotel I was able to talk to the driver a bit. He had been in the army in Sichuan, but didn't like it. He'd also been to bits of Xinjiang and Gansu. He gave me some of this weird fruit thing that he was eating. No idea what it was. It's filled with pips; which are covered in juicy bit. OK, just diferent.

My initial impression of Beijing was pretty good - the airport motorway was a pretty good road and fast. Things slowed down quite a bit was we got closer to the city itself. Lots of cars, many many many many big apartment buildings.

The hotel that I was staying at (the first hotel of the Intrepid trip) was located near the Beijing Train Station - (beijingzhan). (There's two other big train stations - the West and North stations).

After I had checked in (the first time I've ever checked in requiring my passport), and put my bags down, sorted out my stuff, I began my adventure. I was a bit on the nervous side, and as the light was going, I didn't cross any of the major roads. However - just the block of the hotel was plenty to explore.

Beijing to Xi'an

We left the hotel at 3.30pm - a mini bus ride to the Beijing West train station (even though our hotel was quite close to the "main" Beijing train station). The Beijing West train station is a pretty big station. Lots of people moving around, sitting around waiting for their trains. There wasn't much in the way of scenery - it was dark!

It was a hard sleeper train, and I was on top bunk. I got told later that my feet spent most of the night sticking out over the walkway. Would have been a good sight.

We got woken up fairly close to Xi'an, where we got through that busy train station, onto a mini-bus that took us to our hotel.

The flights from Kashgar to Chengdu

getting lost in Urumqi airport. dodgy bread. seeing everyone in the group leave for beijing

Malaysia

Malaysia involved a bit of waiting aruond. Firstly to get through customs.

It's kind of disconcerting going to a country that has a mantatory death sentence for drug dealers. In theory it's fine. You just want to have very strong confidence in the judiciary.

Met up with a guy from Adeliade going to Cambodia? to catch up with his family. Was a cool guy. Forgot his toothpaste; so gave him mine.

Humid, muslim country; but... chicks with very minimal tops around, and queer eye for the straight guy on TV.

Immigration and arport officials - aobut half of women wore scarfs (optional part of their uniform, I suspect).

Returning Home

Woke up and got to the hotel foyer on time. Checked out ok. Then piled int oa minibus. That, like the ride to the hotel the night before, drove way too fast. 140+ km/h in 80 zone...

Then a big but reasonably fast moving queue to get my tickets. Bunch of Aussies behind me - funny as. Then through immigration ok (bit of a wait). Then the shuttle train to the satellite terminal. Then waited around for a bit. then caught my plane. Sat next to a Chinese Malaysia chick.. she was pretty cool to talk to. Had an aisle seat on the side of the plane (just one person to my right, then the windo).

Australian guy immigration official said 'g'day mate' to me. sweet australia. I was home. I had gotten off the plane quickly; and so had one person in front opf me in the immigration queue. Ha.

Quaratine - shoe cleaning. They checked out my wood products - all ok.

"Kevin Noodle" on my return (on green and gold paper even). Housemates are crazy.