New Blog

I finally got round to setting up a new blog for my post-Asia adventures:

http://nicolakerry.weebly.com/

Don't expect me to get around to writing about Australia right away as I'm still working my way through my time in the UK, but I'll hopefully get to it soon!

So, Guangzhou!

After about 45 minutes sleep I got up at 4am to pack up my last few things and cart my two heavy bags down several flights of stairs to the taxi waiting to take me to the airport. I'd chosen to fly with China Southern as their excess baggage policy is pretty sweet - only $75 for an entire extra bag up to 20-something kg compared to most other airlines with their ridiculously high charges of $20+ per kg. It did mean a 22 hour layover in Guangzhou, but when I was changing my original booking the ladies at the ticket office told me that the free transit visa was now available at Guangzhou, and I could also get a complimentary night at a hotel there. I was dreading putting up with 22 tedious hours in a Chinese airport in order to get all my stuff home as cheaply as possible, so to hear I'd basically get a free day in the city was a bonus! It wasn't mentioned anywhere in the booking process or at Guangzhou airport so I'm glad I had to change the original ticket otherwise I'd never have known about it and would have had a grim night in a Chinese airport.

At checkin the woman told me that as my first bag was over the limit I'd have to pay for it, and that my second bag was heavy so I'd have to pay the higher excess baggage price, then I was hustled over to the side to wait for Mr Bao the excess baggage man to arrive while scowly checkin lady got on with her job. When he arrived he just glanced at my bags, said "$75", and that was that! He took my money and went off to fill out the excess baggage slip then gave it to Mrs Scowly who scowled some more, then put the tags on my bags and sent them on the way.

The flight to Guangzhou was pretty short so I arrived late morning and made my way to the transfer desk to pick up my onward boarding pass for London, and then went to the hotel counter to arrange my hotel for the night. I was told to go to one side and wait and ended up spending almost 90 minutes there. Nobody really spoke English beyond the basics so I couldn't work out if they were waiting until more people arrived to take us there together or if they were trying to get in touch with the hotel to see if they were ready for me. Nobody else joined me despite many people going through the transfer section, and eventually someone came to take me to the hotel. I was marched off to immigration and taken through the special lane with my escort, then handed over to some guy who led me on a route march pretty much the entire length of the airport (it is a BIG airport!!), then we sat and waited for a bit before another guy came and took me out to the car park where I was deposited in a bus and sent on my way. We drove past all the airport hotels and out onto local roads past fields and construction sites which made me wonder where on earth we could be heading, then we came into a suburb of the city and I was dropped off at a hotel surrounded by restaurants and right next to a metro station. Much better location-wise than any of the airport hotels!


I headed into the city on the metro (which took forever) and made my way to the tower along the waterfront. It was a bit of a grey winter day so the view wasn't spectacular, but it was nice to walk along the river and through parks. I didn't bother going up the tower as it was pretty expensive, and instead I found a nice park with a pagoda to sit in for a while and watch the locals doing their tai chi. When I started to get cols I headed back to the tower to go to the cafe at the base and warm myself with awesome ginger coffee.

After warming up and reading for a bit I headed back outside for a fairly uneventful sunset, then stuck around to watch the lights come on on the tower. The whole water front was lit up, including fountains, and there were lots of people out walking along the river.

I then crossed the river to the venue of the Asian games and had a wander around there (accompanied by a rousing soundtrack, somewhat reminiscent of my trip to the Olympic park in Beijing!) then walked through the massive square in the city past various fancy fountains and buildings. I called it a night after that and headed back to the hotel, stopping for some food on the way - a traditional Chinese meal of meat-on-a-stick from a random market stall and then some dumplings.

Guangzhou is a bit of a weird place, and it didn't feel very Chinese, but it wasn't like any Asian city I've been to either. While I wasn't expecting it to be exactly like Beijing, it's pretty close to Hong Kong so I thought it might be a bit like a mixture of the two cities, but it definitely wasn't. I'm fairly sure I was in the centre of the city so the lack of people and traffic on the roads, even at 5pm which is mental in any other big city, was a bit disconcerting. Maybe the tower is a strictly tourist area without much business around it, as I can't think why else there weren't many people around. There was minimal honking on the roads, and very little spitting so it really didn't feel like I was in China!

The next morning I had to get up early again as the bus was heading back to the airport at 6am, and the hotel was offering a free breakfast that turned out to be the worst hotel breakfast I've ever had. There were all sorts of weird foods that didn't look remotely appetising, cold congealing trays of egg fried rice and noodles, and warm orange juice. Not warm as in room temperature, but actually heated up orange juice. I gave it a miss and headed over the road for a traditional Chinese breakfast of an Egg McMuffin!

At the airport I had plenty of time to kill before my flight, and made the mistake of going through security too early, assuming that there would be the same selection of shops and cafes on the other side as were in the main departure area. Turns out that isn't the case so I got nice and bored waiting for my plane.

The flight to London was fairly uneventful; as always I spent it watching kids movies and any TV comedies that were available. The trick to an easy exit from Heathrow seems to be to arrive in the afternoon as there were no lines at immigration, compared to when I've arrived early in the morning and have had to spend ages in a line slowly shuffling towards the counter, feeling sorry for the people in the non-EU passport line that is so long it snakes out of the immigration hall and a long long way down the corridor.

Momentary panic at baggage claim when pretty much every single bag had come off except mine, but finally my bags appeared last (I guess they were first on as they got checked in so early). In the end the whole experience was better than expected, as I'd heard many horror stories from people who'd flown China Southern in the past and grimaced whenever I told them I was flying with them. I guess that helped as it had set my expectations so low that the only way was up!

The rest of my photos from Guangzhou are here.

Now I'm no longer in Asia the name of this blog doesn't really work, so once I've set up a new one for my next adventures I'll post the link here so you can continue to read about my adventures around the world!

My last day at work was New Year's Eve, and then I had a few days to get everything done in Hanoi before leaving on the 8th. I managed to cram quite a bit into that time! Besides all the stuff like packing up and selling on stuff I also managed to get out and about a bit.

One day I met my friend Janak at an awesome Chinese/Singaporean restaurant that I only discovered a month or so before leaving, then we drove through the city on the mental roads to get to the Keangnam Tower in the south of Hanoi. It is the tallest tower in Vietnam and the top part is open to the public. In addition to taking in the views (of the smog) there is also a 5D cinema and an optical illusion museum. The view wasn't as impressive as it could be, given that it was a pretty hazy day, but with my time in Hanoi fast running out I didn't have a chance to wait for a clear day, epsecially as they're fairly few and far between. The 5D cinema was better than we were expecting it to be, and actually quite fun, but the best part by far was the illusion museum. We spend ages posing at all the different pictures, although the member of staff who was following us around was ever so concerned that we weren't posing correctly at some of them.

   



We spent a few hours there, which we were both rather surprised about as we had been slightly skeptical about just how good it would be, but it was good fun and definitely a place I'd recommend. The only problem is that it is so far south on the outskirts of the city it's quite a journey to get there. Unfortunately we ended up leaving just as rush hour was kicking off so we were faced with a challenging journey through crazy busy streets. By the time I got back to West Lake it was dark, which actually turned out to be a good thing as I was able to finally see the West Lake dragons all lit up!

Another evening I met Janak at an awesome Japanese restaurant for okonomiyaki. The restaurant sits you down opposite the chef who cooks your dinner for you right in front of you and it is sooo nice, and cheap! After dinner we went next door to a place called Cong Caphe to indulge in a coconut coffee. It's a good thing that the branch around the corner from my apartment only opened a week or two before I left, otherwise I'd have been there every day for some coconut goodness!

One evening some farewell drinks were arranged for me and another guy leaving at the same time and a bunch of friends from work came along to a nice place called Barbetta for some fun at their rooftop bar. As the night progressed people slowly left til there were just 4 of us left, when we decided that rice wine would be a good idea. Unfortunately there wasn't any in the bar, so the bar staff went out to find some. When they returned empty handed they decided to make us some shots to make up for it, which started us on the slippery slope of shots. When the bar closed we ended up going back to Danelle's house and sitting by her pool until the sun came up. It was a nice way to catch up with some of my closest friends from work before leaving, but you don't half feel like a dirty stop out when the journey home takes you past a morning market in full swing! My friend came by that morning to look at my bookshelf and decide if she wanted to buy it, so we went out for a morning bowl of pho and some che and a gossip before heading back to mine to carry it downstairs and tie it to the back of her motorbike. 

A couple of days before leaving I met my friend Cat at a regular lunch spot, KAfe, before heading off for a spot of shopping and then some tedious banking. I went to the bank and told them I wanted to close my account; they gave me a number and we sat down to wait, then after about 30 minutes they came over to tell me their computers had just crashed and they had no idea when they would be working again. I asked if I could go withdraw my money from the ATM and then change it to USD in the bank and she said no problem. I went to get my 10 million dong, then went back in and they said "oh no, we can't change money as our system is down". Not what I want to hear as dong is pretty much worthless outside of the country, and now with it out of my account I couldn't transfer it back to the UK. So off we went to try and find a place to change dong to dollars. First we went to Cat's bank, and they told me that as I hadn't taken it out of an account with them I couldn't change it with them, so we crossed the road to Western Union to see what they could do, which turned out to be absolutely nothing. Next up was a currency exchange shop that wouldn't exchange currency, so finally I ended up going to change it on the black market, where I got a better rate than I would have done at my bank! It took forever though so we ditched our plans for a manicure and pedicure, and after a quick coffee in a nice little cafe by the cathedral, we made our way up to the spa for our facial. Just after we got there and got all settled in there was a power cut in the neighbourhood which prompted random banging and shouting at the spa while they tried to get the generator started, then after three false starts they finally got the generator to stay on long enough to crack on with the facial! Quiet the Vietnamese experience. 

The following day was my last full day in the city and after spending the morning getting things packed and sorted out at my rental agency, I met Cat again to go and get our manicure and pedicure done. We then had fun moving my countertop oven from my apartment to hers with a taxi driver who was high as a kite while trying not to smudge our freshly painted nails. Once we achieved that we went to meet Janak at the Singaporean restaurant that used to be a regular spot when Alison and Calder were living in Hanoi. After dinner we headed to Red River Tea Rooms and settled in for some farewell drinks with some of my favourite people in Hanoi. It was a nice few hours and I finally said my goodbyes and dragged myself away at midnight, well aware I had to get up at 4am. It was tempting to stay out later, but I had to get back and pack up my last few things (which took way longer than I expected) and try and get some sleep. 

It was sad to leave Hanoi, because as frustrating as it could be, I had lots of fun there and met some awesome people. For all the traumatic things that happened there, there were plenty more exciting moments. I miss my friends, obviously, but I also miss the relative freedom there is to life there. I'll have to go back in a year or two and see what's changed, and meet up with whoever happens to still be there.

Here's the full set of photos from my last few weeks in Hanoi. I have one more post to write about my brief stop in China, then I'll have to set up another blog for my adventures in Budapest, the UK and Australia!

No longer in Asia, but it's time to finish off writing about it!

I had another 6 or so weeks in Hanoi after my last post and was kept pretty busy with work, multiple trips to the fabric market and my tailor, and making the most of eating and drinking with good friends in a cheap country!

I didn't have any more big driving adventures heading out of the city into the surrounding area, but I did get out and about in Hanoi a fair bit.

I drove down to the south of the city one day to see my friend's gym empire that he is building down there. Not many Tays make it down that way so I was a constant source of fascination on the roads in and around Ha Dong, and possibly the cause of a few minor accidents as people drove into things because they were busy staring at me rather than looking at the road ahead of them. I met my friend at the shopping centre where one of his gyms is located and we went for lunch, then we went to his 4 gyms in the area to check them out. I was rather amused by this shop in the centre:

Anyone for some Glee Wee?!?!

Another day I met one of the Vietnamese teachers I work with at a market up at West Lake, where I introduced her to the wonders of crepes and she bought me a pretty scarf as a leaving gift, then we drove to some random alley in the middle of the city to a shop that one of her students works at selling baking products and pretty bags (quite a strange selection of things for one shop to sell!). After that we went for lunch at a favourite bun cha restaurant around the corner from where we worked, a place that I really miss!

One evening I made it to Uncle Ho's mausoleum in time for the flag ceremony. A bunch of dudes dressed in their white uniforms march across the square, the flag is taken down, the national anthem is played and the crowd sing along, and then they march back again. They do this every night, and also the reverse happens each morning as they hoist the flag.

In the run up to Christmas there were a few expat markets around the city. I didn't bother with most of them as they all tend to sell the same stuff, but I did go to the HIWC bazaar. They day was a bit grim to start with but I'm glad I dragged myself out of the house and drove halfway around the lake to get there as it perked up a bit once the sun burnt of the smog/mist/pollution/whatever it is that gloomily hangs over Hanoi in the winter. There were some stalls selling locally made products that were fun to browse, but the real treat was the section of the event that was given over to stands from different countries selling their traditional foods. There were tons of different countries, and nearly all of them had several dishes for sale so it took me ages to decide what to have for lunch! A lot of them also sold other goodies so I ended up with speculoos cookies from the Belgian stall, some curry powder from the Indian stall, and (best of all!) a little sticky toffee pudding from the British stall!! There was also a stage in the middle of the venue with a bunch of performances on it throughout the day - dance, music, kickboxing demonstrations, etc - but as each one was kept quite short it never got too boring. 

The run up to Christmas also meant it was time for the work Christmas do, and it was at a pretty good venue. Plenty of cool people went along and it was held at a really nice buffet restaurant I'd always been meaning to go to but never got round to. It was next to the water park and the grounds were decorated nicely, so it was a nice evening.

Christmas Day itself was actually pretty fun - probably the best one I had in Hanoi. There were several of us at work who were looking for something to do, plus a couple of friends of people who were going to be in Hanoi for Christmas, so we ended up booking a table at the Hilton for a fancy Christmas lunch. It kicked off with mulled wine and consisted of a buffet and carvery. It didn't have all the key Christmas foods (no roast potatoes!!) but there was enough good stuff there that we were willing to overlook it. There was also free flow wine which certainly helped the party spirit.

Once lunch wrapped up we made our way over to the Metropole, which amused the locals we passed in the street as the balloon hat came with us, and settled in at the bar by the pool for a drink. We ended up going for champagne, coz we're classy like that, and several bottles later we left, but not before hunting down kiwi santa and posing for photos with him.

New Year's Eve wasn't as exciting - I was working til 8.30 and was sick so it was a bit of a bust. We went for dinner and discovered the wonder of catfish spring rolls, then went to a NYE event a friend had organised, but I bailed soon after midnight to go and curl up in bed. It was probably for the best after the excesses of Christmas!

There are more things I got up to in my last few days but I think this post is long enough as it is, so i'll save that for another day. I promise it won't be several months' wait this time!