World Heritage in Beijing

Well like I said before, we're not quite done.

As we finished the dive trip we realized that within the next 48 hours we would be making our way from Phuket Thailand, to Singapore, and finally to Beijing. It was hard to believe, but the last major destination on our trip awaited us.

On Jan 9th, we reluctantly left our little boat paradise and headed back to civilization, Phuket Town. We spent the night in a comfortable room before catching our 8:00am flight to Singapore. Once there it would be a 15 hour wait before our flight to Beijing at 1:20 am (1:20...what?). We had all day in Singapore to do whatever we wanted. What to do, what to do? Luckily, Kendra had been in contact with Nigel and Furee, who, you may remember we visited on our first trip through Singapore, and arranged for us to meet them at a cafe to catch up. In the last year, these two had been busy. Not only did they get engaged, but were now married and accomodating a new guest, their 2 month (nearly) old baby son, Naveed! Not bad! So it was under completely different circumstances that we met up with them and were introduced to their little pride and joy. We spent a couple of hours catching up, swapping stories and basically having a good time. It was great to see them. After the visit Kendra and I found we still had over 4 hours to get back to the airport and ended up catching a movie, and grabbing a decent dinner. Just like that we were aboard another flight and landing in Beijing. To recap, that was, Wake up in Thailand, visit some friends and catch a movie in Singapore and then wake up in Beijing...a strange day to say the least.


L-R: Kendra, Me, Nigel holding Naveed, and Furee in Singapore

When we arrived in Beijing we noticed two things. One, we were tired! I felt like the walking dead. Between only 5 hours sleep before leaving Thailand and fitful naps on the plane there wasn't much rest in those 2 days. Two, oh Yah, it was cold! -8 C to be exact.

So much for fun in the sun, it was back to the northern hemisphere winter. This at least woke us up a little as we were basically sleep walking to get from the plane to a shuttle bus to a cab. Of course, we got a traditional Asian welcome into the country by the cab driver who obviously could see that we had just arrived and needed a place to stay and proceeded to rob us blind on the cab fare...yup, you just can't let your guard down for a second. In all it took around 2 hours to get from the airport into a warm cozy bed, and for the next 48 hours, yes thats right, forty-eight, we caught up on our sleep (we couldn't even blame jet lag, it was the same time as Singapore). A marathon of power naps, call it what you will, but it was with a feeling of slight guilt that we woke up on that third day to start exploring this most interesting world capital.

Not only is Beijing the capital of the worlds largest populations but it also boasts a cultural heritage unrivaled by all but a select few of the worlds major cities. There are several world heritage sites within the city as well as several within a days drive, there are temples, universities, galleries, theatres, palaces, and pretty much anything else you could imagine. Furthermore, one cannot forget to mention that the city is gripped in olympic fever or should I say, olympic marketing fever, with plenty of projects completed and underway that will make the city that much more impressive for the big event. We couldn't wait to get started.

That first day we started out with a map and a plan to explore. We came across a small market street, and were treated to an impromptu 1 hour lesson on the intracacies of Chinese tea drinking. Aferward, we must have still been a bit rusty on the whole bargaining thing as when we went to buy some of the tea we ended up paying the first price offered, oops. We walked out, realized what we did, and found ourselves laughing about how much we just spent on tea, oh well at least we were laughing. We continued walking and soon found ourselves in that most infamous of Beijing meeting places, Tian' anmen Square.

Tian' anmen Square caught the worlds attention during the 1989 anti-government protests that ended in massacre. In one day during the government crackdown it is estimated that over 180 people were killed. In total across Beijing and other Chinese cities the numbers of actual deaths and injuries varies on who you talk to. Peoples Republic of China (PRC) officials estimate 200-300, students and organizers of the protests say 2000-3000, whatever the number its easy to agree that it was a brutal affair. For us, however, 18 years later, the square was now a meeting place of tourists and those that prey on them. As we tried to enjoy the sights around the square we were bombarded with people selling strange paraphernalia and asking if they could practice english with us before trying to get us to buy a tour, visit an art gallery, or go to an acrobatic show. In the spirit of being spontaneous we ended up actually going to an acrobatic show that night. All in all Day 1 turned out to be a long day.


The main gate at Tiananmen Square

The next few days were a mixture of Sightseeing and Markets. In Beijing we visited the Temple of Heaven, a Taoist temple complex originally built in 1420. Here is the place that every year on the winter solstice the emperors of China would go to pray to Heaven for a good harvest. The centerpiece of this complex is the "Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest" a magnificent triple-gabled circular building, built on three levels of marble stone base recently renovated for the Beijing olympics.


Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, Temple of Heaven

We visited the famous Forbidden City or Palace Museum as it is now called. Its extensive grounds cover 720,000 square meters. It is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world with 800 buildings and 8,886 rooms. Needless to say, we didn't see them all, although we tried after wondering around for nearly 6 hours.






We went to old market streets and a Beijing silk market which used to be a charming old street but is now a 6 storey building. Each floor jammed packed with vendors selling a lot more than just silk. When it came to shopping in Beijing, Kendra and I felt that we could open the gates just a "bit" and, seeing as we were about to head home, pick up some great souveniers that we might not otherwise have bought. This little "bit" became a big "BIT" after we found a couple of items that, for the price, just couldn't refuse. We bought, Chinese porcelin, Qing Dynasty Vases, carpets, and paintings, we bought so much that in the end we actually had no idea how we were going to get it home. We also realized that we had now properly busted the budget, as if the dive trip hadn't already.


Kendra with the owners of this antique shop just after getting a couple vases.

So that about wraps up our trip to Beijing...
...
just kidding...

Of course we went to the Great Wall! I saved this for last as it is definetly the highlight of our week in Beijing. Based on advice from fellow travellers and our own likes and dislikes, we got on a day trip to a section of the wall that is a lot farther from Beijing than the traditional spot and therefore less crowded and touristy. We were in for a treat, not only was there no crowds but our minibus was the only one there, meaning only 10 people in total. Because it is low season as well there was almost no vendors or shops ( I say "almost" because we were followed by people for a while when we got there trying to sell stuff but it wasn't bad at all). What this all translated to was a trip to a world famous site on a beautiful day, with basically just ourselves around to enjoy it...amazing. The section we went to is at a place called, Jinshanling. It took nearly 4 hours (should've been two but traffic there is brutal) to drive there but that section of the wall is original, no renovations, pure history. We walked along it for 10 km, through guard towers and over ridges to a place called Simitai. It was everything I had imagined and more. Check out the photos.


Thats Kendra standing on this secluded section of the wall.




So that was Beijing, and where are we now...

It's Dive O'clock !!!

With heavy sea legs, Mike and I have just returned to land after an incredible 8 day/ 7 night liveaboard sail and dive trip. With Thailand weather, sails up, an old friend, and a mecca of diving in store for us, we knew that this last minute adventure would be one of the best highlights of our year away.

Our diving adventure began on Jan 2 with a tuk-tuk ride from Patong Beach to Chalong Bay Pier, where we saw Alex again (one of the instructor from Ko Tao and co-owner of the sail boat), gave him an enthusiastic hug and met the rest of our liveaboard gang... 3 couples from Swedan. You might not be impressed, but we found this somewhat surprising as we'd only met one other Swedish person on our entire trip and oddly enough the couples didn't know each other either. Suddenly, Mike and I were the minority as English speakers - the first time in a while; especially when we found out our dive instructor was also, you guessed it... Swedish!

A two hour mini-van ride took up us to the pier, where we laid eyes on our home for the next 8 days; The Sampai Jumpa. The wooden hull with 3 sails had a charming quality about her and we were happy to get aboard. Alex and his team: Fred (the underwater tour guide), Ee (the Captain), Lin (the chef) and Khai (the engineer) welcomed us aboard, introduced us to the 21 m, 5 cabin boat, and over a round of Tiger beer, described the hectic schedule we would succumb to for the next 7 days.


View of our ship, the Sampai Jumpa, from the ocean

An example of our Day:

* 6:30am - Wakie Wakie
* 7:00am - Dive #1
* 8:00am - Hot Breakfast
* 10:30am - Dive #2
* 12:00pm - Lunch
* 2:30pm - Dive #3
* 3:30pm - Snack
* 5:00pm - Dive #4 (this could be a sunset or night dive)
* 7:00pm - Dinner & Beer o'clock

Phew! So, to sum it up, it was pretty much: dive, eat, relax, dive, eat, relax, dive, eat, dive, eat, and relax. The dives were stellar (but more on that later), the food was exquisite - with the culinary tastes of traditional Thai and western dishes (I got off the boat almost 2 kilo's heavier), and the relaxing, well... sun and boat... need I say more? I was in heaven!


Ready to jump in - honestly is that what I look like in the mask? Where are my upper teeth?!


Mike is ready for our first night dive!


Before every dive, Alex (in this case) or Fred gave a briefing of the site and all the marine life that we could potentially see.


Relax time!


Relaxing as well - that's another one of the Similan Islands behind him (I think #2?)

As for the diving, well let me first draw you a picture of the Similan and Surin Islands. Located 100 km northwest of Phuket, in the Andaman Sea, the Similans is made up of 9 different islands. The sea floor is littered with enormous bolders and stunning coral reefs, creating a haven for marine life. One hundred km further north is the group of 5 islands that comprises the Surin. The islands have sandy beaches and lush with tropical vegetation. Because of the monsoon season, diving in this area is limited from Oct to April each year. The Similan's boast having one of the top 10 dive site's in the world: Richelieu Rock. The islands are also home to some of the sea's most fantastic creatures; including manta ray's and whale sharks. We were eager to jump in and explore this diving wonder.


View of Similan Island #8 from our boat.

With our own computer watches to monitor our stats while underwater (necessary for multiple day dives), on Jan 3 at 7:55am, our group decended for the first time into the Andaman Sea. The location was Anita's Bay; a nice leisurely dive to get everyone reaquainted with their equipment and bouyancy skills. Minutes after depleting our BCD's of air and plunging 27.7 m into the 24 Deg C water, we glanced up into the ocean blue and to our shock and amazement, witnessed a large manta ray passing by. Mike was going to point out a Trumpet fish to me, but when he turned around, the ray was right behind me. The 3 m ray maneaveured gracefully in the water and circled us once, enabling me to see it's soft white under belly before continuing it's search for food. Fred, our dive guide was stunned b/c in the 15 years he's dived the Siliman's he has never spotted or heard of anyone spotting a manta ray at this site before. So, dive one: check mark for the largest ray in the world!


Our manta ray. Friggin' awesome!

The dives continued at a lightning pace and we were introduced to many new species of marine life such as Octapus, Kuhl Stingrays in the sand, White Margin Unicorn Fish, Redtooth Trigger Fish; Longnosed Emperor Fish, Blue Starfish on the sea floor, etc. We started to practice Negative Entry dives (where you deplete your BCD and fix your face mask on board then jump into the water, with no surface stop and immediatley start to decend) necessary for strong currents and high waves. Unfortunatley I had to skip out on a couple of dives because I had a reverse block - where air gets trapped in your ear while submerged and then when you surface the pressure is greater, creating a very painful ear ache. Luckily after a dose of cold medicine to unblock my sinus cavities and ear drops, I was back in the water again without missing too much marine life; although my left ear is still plugged.





On our second day of diving, Fred had led us through a swim through created by rocks and Mike and I were the last ones to go through, content to stare at the box fish and my favourite: the Oriental Sweetlips. After we idlyically sauntered out of the swim thru, we noticed that everyone else was in a frenzy and racing towards something. By the time we reached the group 20m ahead of us, the fish that had gotten their attention had disapeared into the murky water. When we reached the surface, we found out that everyone except Mike and I had spotted sharks! White tipped reef sharks to be exact. Our instructor saw 6 while the majority of people saw 2 or 3. Mike and I were so dissapointed! Continuing to stress our dissapointment throughout dinner, Alex stated that the objective for the next day's dive was for Kendra (that's me) to TOUCH a shark. I laughed and said before I could touch one, I actually had to see one!

So, the next day (Jan 5) on our third dive, at Three Tree's site, after 10 minutes of diving around a sandy pinnicle, Fred pointed out a LEAPORD SHARK sleeping in the sand. It was the first time that Mike and I had seen a shark and we were ecstatic (plus it's much easiler on the nerves to see a shark when it's sleeping below you in the distance rather than prowling around you in the ocean). Slowly Fred drifted closer to the sleeping hunter and beckoned me to follow. I did and slowing we pivoted our way right beside the beast and then Fred indicated for me to touch the shark and without any hesitation, I DID!!! Its back was hard and sandpaper like. My touch wasn't gently enough though, because the shark woke up and slowly swam around the group, looking at us inquisitely before moving a few metres away. This was one of the best moments of the trip for me.


Oh, I wish this was a picture of me touching the shark, but we didn't have the camera with us on that dive. This is me descending after jumping from the boat (above in the picture). That's Mike's knee.

Another favourite diving moment was at a site called Koh Bon. Mike accuratley described the dive as "Manta Ray Theatre". Our diving group held onto a rocky ridge covered in coral and floated in the current waiting for Manta's to drift by and we were rewarded with multiple sightings! There was at least 3 different rays that curiously circled over us at least 10 times throughout the 50 min dive. The rays measured in 3 - 4 metres, not including their tail. Such an amazing thing to see these majestic creatures floating in the water around you. It was a very special moment to share our dive with them. An encore performance an hour and a half later resulted in another 4 sightings, plus a quick glimpse of a leopard shark swimming in the blue 15 meter away while we completed our safetly stop.

The marine life bonanza continued with giant eels, octupus, sea snakes, poisonous yet beautiful lion fish , camoflagued scorpian fish (yet again poisonous), Durban Dancing Shrimp, and even 2 very rare yellow Tigertailed SEA HORSES!. We also did a couple of wreck dives, which was really neat to see. All in all, the diving was everything that we had hoped for and more. The only thing missing was the elusive Whale Shark, which I personally think are a myth anyways :-)


Giant Moray Eel


Clown Fish

When we weren't in the sea, we became friends with the Swed's: Eva & Dag; Mathias & Per; and Karin & Mathias. Another diver joined us on our second day- Marg from Bathe, England, who was also lovely. Surprisingly, everyone was around the same age and we all got along really well (unless they were talking about us badly in Swedish and just pretending to be nice to us in English the whole week). Now we'll have to visit the Scandanavian country as we have so many places to stay! Unfortunately our friend Alex, had to leave the boat mid way through the trip. It was great to see him for a third time and I'm sure we'll see him again in a few years when we sign up for his new luxury dive boat trip!

Well that's 20 more dives for the ol' dive log book!

Sunkissed and feel like fishies!
Kendra & Mike

Flying into the New Year

Welcome back to our blog!
Are you bored yet? Hope not because we're not quite done!
Kendra left a little cliffhanger on her last update regarding where and what our next destination will be. Well I can alleviate the suspense (I knew you could hardly wait) by telling you that Kendra and I are now back in Thailand for the 3rd time looking forward to some more fun in the sun. Damn you guys must be getting sick of hearing that on this website, sorry about that, well not really, we love it!

Kendra's last update had us as far as Dunedin and the Otago Pennisula in the South Island. We were originally unsure of what would happen after that as our rental was going to expire but luckily we were able to extend it until our flight on the 27th (for the original price) (not sure why I'm mentioning this). Now because we had been so efficient in touring the country we had already completed Kendra's South Island Itinerary (see my last update for info on "the" itinerary") ahead of the schedule and found ourselves with an almost 10 day gap in activities. So, naturally we headed back to Queenstown to meet up with Brian and Dale to muche (sp?) off them for as long as possible before they kicked us out. Actually as Kendra already mentioned Brian and Dale were absolutely awesome to us and suprisingly they welcomed us into their home for the second time (suckers...just kidding ;) ).

While we were at their place we kept ourselves busy (mostly watching movies, sleeping in late and watching movies, thanks Mike). Daggy took me off to a back road sheep/cattle station called "The Branches" one day (don't worry as far as I can tell the rumors about Kiwi's and sheep are still just rumors) and while he mustered cattle up the valley I was set loose for the day to explore the countryside. No trails, no signs, just fields, hillsides, rivers and lakes! Kendra stayed in town with Dale taking in the sights and sounds of the local town, Arrowtown. I also spent a couple hours at the local pub meeting rugby players and farmers alike, one of those visits got pretty inebriated, I mean, exciting, ending in a cab ride, late night snack and another sleep in. Kendra spent those times having reportedly several bottles of good white wine and keeping Dale up with conversation and laughs. Oh yeah and also keeping the boys up especially George playing all manner of board games until, I'm pretty sure, every game they owned had been played at least once.

Unfortunately After that week off travelling, we reluctantly had to hit the road again leaving the Daggs to have Christmas without us nosy Canadians around. At this point I have to say a huge THANK YOU to Brian, Dale, Michael and George for letting us stay and treating us like one of the family...it was awesome you guys...sob...(thats Kendra sobbing in the background).

We were on the road again. Two items remained on Kendra's Itinarary, Mt. Cook, and Christchurch. The first day we drove to Lake Pukaki making it just before sunset. Lake Pukaki offered spectacular views of Mt. Cook, New Zealands tallest mountain, and the sunset was phenomenal. We slept overlooking this lake in the visitors center parking lot (no we are not hobos) and were treated to a sunrise that was even better then the sunset the night before. That day we drove into the Mt. Cook village and did a short 4 hour hike up to Hookers Lake before getting back on the road and stopping for the night at another beautiful lake called, Lake Tekapo (pronounced take-a-poo, hehehe, poo....sorry its not funny I'm just imature). This is where we would spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, a fitting tribute to a year of travelling, a dinner of steak and potatoes and a breakfast of cereal. It was easier to forget that it was Christmas being that it is summer in New Zealand. However, we still found ourselves nostalgic about missing the Christmas festivities with everybody back home.

That day, Christmas day, we drove to Christchurch and stayed for the night at yet another body of water on the nearby Banks Pennisula. On the 26th we returned our car. I have to say, we definetly did not have the same attachement to this car as we did for the ABBA van and wasn't sorry to see it go, just sorry that our New Zealand adventure was over.

Christchurch is another beautiful New Zealand city, we explored it that afternoon although unfortunately we didn't get a chance to see much of it as we had to pack our bags and get ready for our depature the next day. I have to say that New Zealand is an amazing country as you may have noticed from our updates. I recommend that everybody visit this great country at least once in their life, beauty, friendliness and adventure await all who make the trip! (I know we're going back - 2011 Rugby World Cup...)

And where did I say we were, thats right Thailand. On the 27th we flew to Singapore, on the 28th, after a wonderful night sleeping on the floor and benches of the airport, we flew to Phuket. Just like that we were back in the middle of SE Asia, and why did we come? Why would be backtrack to a country we had already visited twice on this trip? The answer is two fold.

1) to postpone again as long as possible the inevitable trip home and the end of this amazing trip.
2) to get Kendra, who can't imagine going home without a tan, the chance to get one before the dark cold nights of the Albertan winter claim her.

I mean 3 fold.
...
wait for it...
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3) to get on our BOAT, thats right, our 8 day/7 night liveaboard boat trip that will take us to the Similan and Surin Islands and some of the worlds best dive sights....more diving! Suprise!

Oh yeah, we are pumped about this one! We leave tomorrow the 2nd after 5 days enjoying the beach, sun, and a hell of a New Years party last night here in Phuket! Trust us, we are suprised as you are. It came together because one of the dive instructors we got to know back on Koh Tao is a partner of this liveaboard dive and sail company. He emailed us back in November and offered us a deal we couldn't refuse, so here we are! All I can say is check out the link and prepare to get jealous, sorry but its true. My god you must be sick of us by now.

So we're off on one of our last adventures. Kendra will let you know how it all went in about 8 days/7 nights. After that its Beijing, the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and then, well I can't believe it, Home.

Till Next Time,
Mike and Kendra

PS.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!