asia 2016 (tokyo)

I am going to attempt to get all of my Tokyo blog in one go so I hope it does not turn out too much of a long read. My journey to Tokyo did not start off too well. I was delayed leaving Beijing which meant that instead of a 2 hour layover in South Korea I got 40 mins. I only got 40 mins because the flight from South Korea to Tokyo was also delayed (I should have only had 15). Due to this, I can not say much about South Korea Incheon airport other than we had a very cool traditional Korean greeting waiting for us. Anyway, boring flying chat over, I landed in Tokyo at about 2030 and quickly got a bus to the main train station and then a tax to my place. For Tokyo I stayed in an AirBnB and it was probably the best decision I could have made. The apartment was a great size, comfortable and 15 minutes walk from Shinjuku station (the busiest station in the world with 2million passengers a day). There was a closer station but you always needed to go to Shinjuku and I am not lazy enough to not walk for 15 minutes.

What can I say about Tokyo in one word....nothing. It is impossible as there are so many things to say about this amazing city. It was completely like what I imagined after watching Lost in Translation. Flashing lights, very tall building, lots of people wearing suits, tv screens everywhere but then much more. Everyone was so polite, they smile, asking a question of someone in a shop etc doesn't feel like you are inconveniencing them. I decided early on that I would only stay in Tokyo as travelling to Kyoto would cost me £200 on the bullet train so it was not worth going for just a few days. Instead, I took the whole 8 days in Tokyo and will go back to Kyoto to give it the attention it deserves another time. Tokyo itself is not a very old looking city due to an earthquake in 1923 and from the Americans bombing it in WW2 destroying many of the old buildings. Due to this, everything looks very futuristic. You can get a hint of the old capital when you visit the Imperial Palace. The only bits surviving from the WW2 destruction is where the Emperor lives and members of the public can only visit on the Emperors birthday and at New Year. Instead, we can to wonder around the vast gardens which proved to be a very relaxing experience.

Whilst travelling around the other countries, I made a concerted effort to stay away from Japanese food knowing that I would eat as much as I could in Tokyo. Yo Sushi will never be the same again in all honesty as eating the real thing really does make you realise the big difference. Everywhere I ate, I tried to keep it local so seeing no white people was always a good sign. One particular bar I ate in did dumplings, I say bar because it was so small and you literally walked in through the door and onto a chair at a bar with the chefs behind and they just cooked your dumplings etc to order. I am pretty sure I have never tasted anything as good as some of these local places. I made a friend in Japan who studied at UCL. The best part of that day was coffee that turned into having dinner before hitting some bars and culminated with singing karaoke at 4am with a bunch of local young people that did not really speak English but could sing along to the Beatles. A very epic evening indeed.


Tokyo has many shrines and temples scattered around which were interesting to visit and spend some time just standing and thinking and enjoying the free green tea that they hand out at the Senso-ji temple. This is Tokyo's most sacred temple but unfortunately, lots of it was damaged by the American bombings during WW2 so has had to be re-built or things are just missing. The buildings were spectacular though and as with places in China, you had people giving offerings and praying right next to people trying to sell their bits and bobs. Unfortunately because of that, you can never get a photo without being photo bombed 100 times and just before you actually enter the temple area, you walk through a narrow outdoor corridor with small outdoor shops which took some time to navigate through due to the shear number of people. As I have said before, if you think London is crowded, the tourist areas in some of the cities I visited are twice as bad.

Whilst in Tokyo, I decided to take a trip to the Science and Natural History museum as you do. It had much more to offer than the one in Beijing with so many specimens including one of my favourite extinct species (Megaloceros giganteus) and virtual displays designed for children to understand things but useful to everyone.

Walking around Tokyo sometimes proved confusing and one of my two stress attacks came when trying to find a particular bookshop that according to the signposts existed but didn't seem to be anywhere. I eventually found it with some help but it was not where I expected. People do not cross the road unless the green man is on even if the roads are clear and it is illegal now to smoke outside. Instead you have to go to designated smoking areas that are randomly around the streets. It is an interesting policy aimed at cleaning up the air for the 2020 Olympics however you can still smoke inside so as you can imagine, coming from a country where it has been banned since 2005, going to a place to eat and being surrounded by smokers is a tad uncomfortable (and made my clothes stink).

One particular evening that I must share was when I travelled up to the observation tower at the Tokyo City Hall. 42 levels up was a pretty scary though and once there, looking out onto the city you realise just how huge it really is, it literally spreads to the horizon as shown in this photo (apologies for bad quality but the window reflects).

I was very sad to leave but at this stage, I had been travelling for 3 weeks and home time was getting closer. My next leg of the journey was back to Hong Kong and then finally back to London.

asia 2016 (beijing - part 2)

Arriving into Beijing station at 9am fresh from a fairly comfortable train ride, Seven and I (mainly Seven) helped the German guys to find their bearings and then we set off to drop our luggage and head to the Great Wall of China. For such a large population, the transport system is actually quite robust and the hour long journey to B station where all the tourists go to see the Great Wall was easy and we actually got to sit down. There is another place to visit the Great Wall but it takes about 3-4 hours to get there and today was a Monday so therefore a working day meaning maybe it would be quiet? Quiet in Chinese terms is relative but actually we didn't have to wait for very long as most of the tourists opted to use the sky lift to avoid walking, we walked up. The wall was built so that it always headed for the highest point, when reading this I did not even register the fact that actually this meant it was pretty steep. I was lucky enough to get a photo with not many people showing just how steep it was...

For miles around you could just see undulating hills and dense bush. I feel for the army that tried to get through it to be honest (but actually the great wall was not very useful and was breached twice (I think)). Luckily the weather was great, the sun was out and not much pollution was inhaled so overall a great day. On the journey to the wall, we met an Irish dude who ended up staying with is around the wall. He was fun to chat too and is living the dream life getting well paid to teach English in South Korea and then travelling and then back to South Korea. 

The following day, Seven had to return to work so I had the next couple of days to explore Beijing all alone. First up was the National Museum of China and at without wanting to risk being visited by secret Chinese officials, I was not all that impressed. It was a huge building and not filled with very many exhibits so it just looked empty. It did however have a very interesting exhibition on Chinese currency and how the use if different monies has evolved throughout the dynasties. As mentioned earlier, I decided against visiting the frozen corpse of Chairman Mao so a little walk around Tiananmen Square concluded that day. I could visit Beijing without a visit to the Geological Museum so that happened the next day. Photos are included in my Google Album for those that want to see but there were some really impressive specimens although very very few were on display. The whole museum was only 4 floors wth the 4th floor being a celebration of how much geology Chairman Mao new about (sigh!).

My final day consisted of a visit to the Summer Palace. A very large park with a palace that was destroyed many times by the British and French. I know this because literally every sign in the palace started off with 'this building was rebuilt after being destroyed by Anglo-French Forces'. The palace from what I read was mainly used by the Dowager Empress Cixi, most people might remember her as a complete b!*ch who spent loads of money including using money set aside to upgrade the Chinese imperial navy to build herself a concrete boat and eventually lead to the downfall of the Emperors and the start of the Republic of China. There is also a very large Buddhist temple in the middle of the palace complex. I found it a reoccurring theme that people would be trying to pray but in the background people are trying to sell 'tat' to tourists. Strange.

I have not really spoken about individual meal but my final one in Beijing must be mentioned. We went to a place that did hot pots, not the English sort though. In a nutshell you get a pot that is spit in two and you can choose 2 from a number of flavours of soup to go in them - see photo. We had spicy and mushroom. They sit on a cooker in the middle of the table and kept at the boil. You then order your food such as meatballs, crab sticks, noodles, beef etc etc and it comes raw (similar to Korean BBQ from HK) and place them into the soup to cook. It was beaaaaaaautiful food and the staff were so welcoming, helpful and chatty. One of the waitresses apparently had a crush on me (according to Seven) so she was always hanging around filling up my water which was pretty cute. We ordered noodles and proper noodle chef (yes they exist) can out and did some crazy moves including throwing the noodles around so that they almost hit my face before cutting them and placing them in the soup. All for really good value, I could not have had a better meal to finish my time off in China.

The morning of my departure was my first experience of stress. I literally could not get into the metro heading for the airport due to the rush hour. I suppose I should have thought ahead that a city of 17 million would have a busy rush hour. Luckily a taxi driver said he would just take me straight to the airport. Leaving China was also not as painful as I imagined and immigration was fast and efficient. Next stop was South Korea before onwards to Tokyo BUT we were delayed by an hour, something not uncommon in China so I was told.

asia 2016 (shanghai & suzhou)

Shanghai was one of those trips that had to be done as it was fairly simple to get too and of course, the British had great influence in the area is it was going to be interesting to see the differences between it and Beijing. In total, I spent 3 days in Shanghai and in all fairness, there is not much to see. The Bund is the main destination for tourists where you can see all the old colonial buildings etc. From here you can also stand on the promenade to view over onto the western side of the Huangpo River into the Pudong district. Think of the city Star Fleet HQ is based in in Star Trek......it looks just like that. At 7pm there is also a light show where they switch on the lights of all the tall buildings and the famous Shanghai tower - it all looks very pretty. The rest of the time was spent just casually enjoying the atmosphere of the mid-Autumn festival, visiting the busy Nanjing Road shopping area. I do have photos but as I am working from my iPad, I have found it hard to add them properly so I will just upload them when I get home.

The final day before getting a sleeper train back to Beijing was in a smaller city not far from Shanghai called Suzhou. It is was of the many Chinese cities that refer to themselves as 'the Venice of China' due to the fact that it has some canals. Suzhou is famous for being one of the early focal points for the silk trade. It has a more traditional look than Beijing in my opinion and definitely compared to Shanghai. Everywhere you go is a local shop or restaurant and chains were almost non-existent. Suzhou is also famous for its gardens and I visited the Lion Grove Garden. Again, more photos will come up soon and really I need them to explain how beautiful this garden really was. It once belonged to a Chinese academic (Suzhou was a place where academics retired too apparently) and is now open to the public to enjoy. Chinese gardens are famous (apparently) for their rock formations and how they are made in mazes that you can wonder around and play in. This garden was no different and it took about 1hr to wonder through all the twists and turns. Photos soon I promise!

It has to be said that the people I encountered here were on the whole, much more friendly and much less suspicious looking (more in the next post). You still had the security checks at tube stations but they usually smiled at you and although I do not view it as super important, more people spoke English so it was generally easier to get about. A note on that, I disagree that everyone in the world should be learning English as actually we Brits are terrible at assuming everyone should speak our language and that we should make no effort (except for the Americans of course - they are much worse). Before I get lynched, I am not at all saying that is always the case but you have to admit, it is the majority. On one of the evenings, I went to a bar and ended up chatting with a lady from Wales and a guy from Coventry (how weird!) who now lived and worked in Shanghai. Their experiences were all positive in all ways apart from certain beaurocratic obstacles placed on foreign people by the communist government in China. It was a unique experience for me as I did not realise Welsh people ventured that far abroad.

Suzhou and Shanghai done, it was time to board a comfy sleeper train where we shared a cabin with two Germans (who were sort of interesting but one studied marketing and the other said some stuff but also had his top off so I was distracted) and off we went back to Beijing for part 2 of my visit there.

asia 2016 (beijing - part 1)

Firstly I have to apologise for the delays to writing for all of my avid readers, having Google blocked in China is difficult and even with VPN, finding the time to type stuff up and then copy and paste it across was too much for me (to be bothered with). So here I am sat on the flight to Tokyo, just been informed that we are delayed. I think I am experienced enough in the way of the Chinese now to say...typical! I have loved my time in China very much but something I definitely take away is that the Chinese authorities literally do not care if you have an issue or somewhere to be. They do everything in their own good time and if they can be bothered (more on that later). I will have to break my Chinese trip into 4 parts I think. 2 for my time in Beijing, 1 for my time in Shanghai and 1 for my general feelings and to talk about some funnies that have happened whilst here.

So for the first part, Beijing is a huge city. In the UK we all learn that the Chinese have a massive population etc etc but you do not actually appreciate truly how big that is unless you come here (or attend Imperial College I guess). The metro system does not experience an off-peak time and I think I managed to get a seat twice on all the journeys. As I've mentioned before in other posts, I do like to walk everywhere but this seemed impossible in Beijing as everything is so far away. That said, you can not fault the transport system, it is efficient and quick despite having to go through a security check every time you enter a metro station. I was very fortunate to have a friend in Beijing who I met when he was studying in the UK, without him I would have been stuck as hardly any of the officials speak English and Chinese is a little bit beyond my ability to learn coherently in such a short space of time, especially as a slight 'mispronunciation' could mean something completely different even though to me, it sounds the same.

Day 1 started with a trip to the Forbidden City. This huge complex of royal buildings was the seat of power for the Ming and Qing dynasties but now has a huge portrait of Chairman Mao hanging on the front and sits opposite where his frozen corpse is kept (and displayed in the morning - grim). I should note that I didn't visit Chairman Maos corpse as a photograph of the man who started the destruction of Chinese culture is not somebody I really care much about. Back to the Forbidden City, getting inside is fairly cheap at 60 RMB, it would have been cheaper as they do student discount but the lady on the desk did not believe that a 28 year old could be an undergraduate. I have many photographs showing the beautiful architecture in my Google Photos. One comment I made to my friend when walking through the FC is that one always thinks of Emperors, Imperialism and the general power of the dynasties when walking through these buildings but does anybody actually think of the skilled workforce who created it. The detail and small intricate differences in design all have meaning and the people who built this place must have been extremely skilled. I didn't even realise until pointed out that the guardian lions are actually male and female, you can tell which is which by the objects under their right paws - males have a ball and females have a lion cub. Looking outward, females are always on the right and males are always on the left. All the statues are in 5s or 9s as this had meaning for the emperors etc etc. All very fascinating stuff and totally different to what I have been used to in Europe.

The second day, I was due to fly to Shanghai. That day also marked the start of the mid-Autumn festival. This is where Chinese people essentially celebrate family. It is popular to eat Moon Cakes with the idea that when members of your family are not present or scattered all over the world, you all eat the moon cake and it is as if you are together. I was lucky enough to be invited to my friends family for lunch and it was an absolute feast. One of the uncles also took great pleasure in getting me to try the Chinese spirits which I can best compare to petrol. It was so strong. I had some amazing conversations with everyone (one uncle could speak English and another could understand me but not really speak English) about politics, their home affairs and it was interesting to get the real Chinese view of things as we in the west have a very definite view in my opinion when we think of China and Chinese people.

Lunch over it was time for the airport and Shanghai.

asia 2016 (hong kong - part 2)

I am currently writing my blogs out of synch as due to my own lack of organisation I am now in China and the Chinese block everything Google, Facebook, Snapchat or IG related. Therefore I will just finish off about my time in HK and then do a new post to talk about the interesting experiences of mainland China.

HK is probably one of my new favourite places. The mix of old and, I won't even say new as it's more like futuristic is intense. Everyone was friendly too whether it came to buying stuff or asking for directions. Although not a huge huge city, I walked everywhere and started to regret it by the end as my feet were on fire. The metro, or MTR, is quick and easy to use. I mentioned in my earlier blog (or I might not have but can't check as it's blocked) about the octopus card and that you can buy most things on it including food and for all the transport, the card also makes travelling extremely cheap. I am regretting only spending 4 days there so will likely find another cheap flight to visit again.

I would say one bad thing about HK though, the air-conditioning. It is near impossible to acclimatise to the humidity as when you walk indoors or just walk past a shop door, the air con is soooooo cold. In the international finance centre shopping centre where I hanged out to get wifi and a hot drink (whilst waiting for my train to the airport), the air con is sub zero I think and being there in shorts and t-shirt was not comfortable despite being a pale Northern European who should be used to it.

My final delight from HK was the fact you can actually check in your luggage for a flight at the train station! You can then just chill out and only have to go to the airport 40 mins or so before your flight so you can go through security. It is so so efficient, London could learn a lesson or ten.

Photos will follow and maybe the odd edit but for now, next stop Beijing.

asia 2016 (hong kong - part 1)

5.30am starts have never been cool in the first place especially when you have an 11hr flight preceded by a 6 hour transfer in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, the plan to to go out into the city (in Amsterdam) did not carry through as you have to be back ridiculously early for long hurl flights. Instead I enjoyed a cultural McDonalds and numerous Starbucks whilst trying to work on my thesis. The flight itself was with KLM and as a frequent Ryanair flyer, I was surprised at how much they fed and watered you for free - I could definitely get used to it. Also, unfortunately I was not able to sleep so as I am writing this I have to keep correcting typos. Sigh!

Arriving in HK itself and the process of collecting luggage etc was less stressful than I thought. Even going through immigration was relatively simple and despite a huge queue for the bus into Yau Ma Tei (the area I am staying), it was also an easy experience. The currency here is something confusing though, everything seems so expensive but actually £1 is equivalent to 10 HKD. The rain though was something else. I remember getting off the plane in Thailand some years ago and you get that damp, humid smell that tells you what part of the world you are in. HK was no different and it was also awful torrential rain to the point where you couldn't even see out the window due to the stream of water. To add to the pain, the hotel did not let me check in till 1pm (I arrived about 12, they said at first 1.30pm but must have felt sorry for me).

The room is nice for the money I paid and smack in the centre. It is located on a long road called Nathan Street which runs straight into the Victoria Harbour and overlooks Hong Kong Island itself. I couldn't help myself  but take some cheeky tourist pics (see below) and then off for some authentic food in the style of Korean BBQ buffet. I was introduced to it by a friend and you basically get your own meat and fish (all raw) and cook it at your own table inside a small, round heater metal thing in the table. I'm sure they exist in London but never found one, it tasted amazing! 

Walking down Nathan Street proved quite hilarious. It was packed with people and the famous flashing lights everywhere. It also had random Indian guys trying to sell pocket watches and rolex watches to all the white westerners. Surely not you say? But yes, they literally moved through the crowds and only seemed to target us. Strange - does that mean they think we have money or are mugs - or both?

Anyway, a successful first day with lots more to look forward too :D

asia 2016 (intro)

So I am finally all set to go on my 3 weeks of travels around parts of Asia. First stop will be Hong Kong followed by China, Japan and Singapore. I have decided not to make any definite plans other than to visit Beijing and Shanghai when in China. Unlike the other countries, China requires a visa and in order to get one, you have to book your whole journey and then tell them. God knows what would happen if they decide to not give you one after spending all that money. 

I hope to keep my blog fairly regularly updated and will be sharing all of the photos on my Google Photos album so watch this space.

This will also be the very first time I have travelled alone, maybe a blessing as I do not have to worry about compromising with anyone over when I wake up, eat, sleep and where I go etc.

I suppose I am lucky that I will not be having any teaching this term on a Monday as being jet-lagged and trying to learn does not seen compatible. 

Next stop, Hong Kong (via 6 hours transfer in Amsterdam, not so bad I guess!)