Chlidonias Goes To Asia, part three: 2013-2014

[Chlidonias]

Anyway, you plan on taking the airport bullet train in Shanghai? We took a joy ride on it - 440kmph I think was the maximum speed (I took a pic of the speedometer). Magnetic levitation - smoothest ride ever!

I rode that train today. Jess was going to Thailand so I went to the airport with her and we took the Maglev train. She was very excited about doing so. Not so excited when we discovered that there are two bullet trains, a fast one and a slow one, and they run in blocks of time through the day. Naturally the block of time we had to go to the airport in was during when the slow bullet train was running! It only goes 301kph. Meh. The fast one goes 430kph. I'll be going to the airport tomorrow night for my flight, but it is after the Maglev stops running so I'll be taking the regular Metro which is ten times slower.

 

[nanoboy]

I rode that train today. Jess was going to Thailand so I went to the airport with her and we took the Maglev train. She was very excited about doing so. Not so excited when we discovered that there are two bullet trains, a fast one and a slow one, and they run in blocks of time through the day. Naturally the block of time we had to go to the airport in was during when the slow bullet train was running! It only goes 301kph. Meh. The fast one goes 430kph. I'll be going to the airport tomorrow night for my flight, but it is after the Maglev stops running so I'll be taking the regular Metro which is ten times slower.

The vast majority of readers here from developed countries can only dream of trains that go 300kmph.

You should give us some stats on your trip so far. Maybe I or someone else can whip up an info graphic.

e.g. 5,350 - dollars spent on trip
135 - number of hours spent on trains

 

[Chlidonias]

The vast majority of readers here from developed countries can only dream of trains that go 300kmph.

You should give us some stats on your trip so far. Maybe I or someone else can whip up an info graphic.

e.g. 5,350 - dollars spent on trip
135 - number of hours spent on trains

what stats would you like in particular? I could probably give dollars spent, number of days travelling, number of bird species, number of mammal species (you could work out my "dollar per day ratio" and "dollar per bird/mammal ratio"), maybe number of hours on trains (that one might take a bit of time to go back through and work out! It probably comes to something like 300 hours), maybe even number of different hotels/hostels I've stayed at. Can't think of anything else off the top of my head.

 

[ThylacineAlive]

I'd definitely like to see how much money has been spent. Could you try to work it out in like multiple currencies so that we can all follow.

~Thylo

 

[nanoboy]

what stats would you like in particular? I could probably give dollars spent, number of days travelling, number of bird species, number of mammal species (you could work out my "dollar per day ratio" and "dollar per bird/mammal ratio"), maybe number of hours on trains (that one might take a bit of time to go back through and work out! It probably comes to something like 300 hours), maybe even number of different hotels/hostels I've stayed at. Can't think of anything else off the top of my head.

Yeah all of that sounds good. I also thought of plotting your route on a map, and then the trip kind of got ahead of me, especially when you went to China.

Oh, and Thylo, if he gives you dollars spent, Google can help you convert it into any currency.

 

[Chlidonias]

I can give the money total in NZ dollars (it will be a rough calculation because of exchange rates changing as I travel) and also in Korean, Russian and Chinese currencies for the three countries I've been in so far.


I discovered why the guests at the hostel here in Shanghai were annoying me so much -- there was a bus-load of backpackers here (they all left this morning while I was on my computer). In NZ I would equate them to Kiwi Experience but I don't know the equivalent in other countries. You know the sort of bus groups made up of stupid young people who just want to go round drinking and being dumbasses. A party bus. The other people staying here actually seem normal sorts, it is just that bus-load was overwhelming the stats.

Other than that I'm not impressed with this hostel anyway. The staff are pretty useless. The only good thing I can say is that there is a random framed map of the South Island of New Zealand on the wall of the floor my dorm is on! (For anyone not aware, that is where I am from).

 

[nanoboy]

I can give the money total in NZ dollars (it will be a rough calculation because of exchange rates changing as I travel) and also in Korean, Russian and Chinese currencies for the three countries I've been in so far.


I discovered why the guests at the hostel here in Shanghai were annoying me so much -- there was a bus-load of backpackers here (they all left this morning while I was on my computer). In NZ I would equate them to Kiwi Experience but I don't know the equivalent in other countries. You know the sort of bus groups made up of stupid young people who just want to go round drinking and being ******. A party bus. The other people staying here actually seem normal sorts, it is just that bus-load was overwhelming the stats.

Other than that I'm not impressed with this hostel anyway. The staff are pretty useless. The only good thing I can say is that there is a random framed map of the South Island of New Zealand on the wall of the floor my dorm is on! (For anyone not aware, that is where I am from).

Yeah, any tour that STA Travel offers for young people. I know the type, though I have never been on one myself.

 

[Chlidonias]

today was actually cold and miserable in Shanghai (it did actually feel really cold!) which isn't good because tonight I fly out to Malaysia where it is going to be over 30 degrees and I don't like sudden changes in air temperature. Anyway I went to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium which was very good overall with some less good parts. I shall have a review and photos up in a few days hopefully. The area the Aquarium is in is a real tourist area (the Pearl Tower and all that sort of thing is there as well). I saw the only Subway I have ever seen in China there! (Subway as in the sandwich shop, not an actual subway because I've seen them in China a lot, except they call them the Metro and they aren't always sub. In fact they're not sub very often, which is why they aren't called subways!). Also there was a Dairy Queen which is the first one I've ever seen anywhere but I understand it is a famous Western chain. When I came out of the Metro I was looking at a big map outside the building trying to work out where the Aquarium was in relation to my position and I saw a label for something called the "Shanghai Natural Wild-Insect Kingdom" and so (Naturally) I went there as well after I had been to the Aquarium. It was, well, not very good. I shall have a review and photos of that up at some point as well.

I think I'm going to spend a few days in Kuala Lumpur before going to Bukit Fraser. That is up in the hill country (bukit means "hill") so it is much cooler than the lowlands where the city is and it is really top-heavy with birds and other nice animals. I was last there in 2006 and I've always wanted to go back but somehow never did.

 

[baboon]

Other than that I'm not impressed with this hostel anyway. The staff are pretty useless. The only good thing I can say is that there is a random framed map of the South Island of New Zealand on the wall of the floor my dorm is on! (For anyone not aware, that is where I am from).

Because there are more and more Chinese go to New Zealand for tour...... Thanks for The Lord of the Rings.

 

[JBZvolunteer]

Also there was a Dairy Queen which is the first one I've ever seen anywhere but I understand it is a famous Western chain..

I must ask did you stop into try your fist ever blizzard? (It is a fancy version of a shake that is really thick. It is way better than it sounds.)

 

[Chlidonias]

I must ask did you stop into try your fist ever blizzard? (It is a fancy version of a shake that is really thick. It is way better than it sounds.)

no, but I expect I shall encounter a Dairy Queen here in Kuala Lumpur -- they have everything else! Directly around the hostel I am in (Sunshine Bedz) there's a McDonalds, a Burger King, a KFC, a Subway, and no doubt a dozen others. If I come across a Dairy Queen I shall try a Blizzard, if such a thing exists in Asian Dairy Queens.

 

[Chlidonias]

So, as I said above, I am in Malaysia now. The country has got even more relaxed about immigration since last time I was here. Now you don't even fill out an arrival card or declaration or anything. You just head off the plane to Immigration, they stamp your passport and wave you through (this is if you're a New Zealander, possibly different for other nationalities because Malaysia likes us), you collect your bag from the luggage belt and then walk through Customs without a glance. Easy-peasy.

A bit of a round-up of the trip so far: a few hours at Hong Kong airport at the start, followed by a fairly rubbish visit to South Korea, followed by an even more rubbish visit to Russia, then a brilliant time was had in Mongolia, and then the mixed bag that was China. That didn't start out well but it picked up very well indeed once I got to Sichuan. I think it was partly because China takes a few weeks to “get into” because it is so different to everywhere else you've been, and then after that while you don't really get used to it, all the oddities just seem more normal. Also Sichuan is just the best province for wildlife, and it really did seem a different place to the rest of China.

I really did like China a lot. I probably won't get to go back but I would like to. There are still so many animals left to see there – I mean, just how does one go about finding a giant salamander?! Pretty much everybody in the country was exceptionally nice, if often baffling (and probably baffled), and unlike most of the countries I've been to in southeast Asia there was almost literally no scamming or anything of that nature. There were a few minor instances but I think that was probably more due to me misunderstanding things than actual scams. And unlike, say, Thailand or Malaysia, I was quite happy leaving my bags sitting on a seat in a bus station while I went off to the toilet because I knew full well they would be there when I got back. It's just that sort of country.

I love the fashion in China too! Everyone is an individual and nobody else cares. Or at least it seems like nobody else cares. In the West people are so stuck up that if someone isn't wearing “normal” or “fashionable” clothes the cool people look down upon them and make snide remarks. I have wondered if it is the same in China (or Japan come to that) or if everyone is just fine with everything. I saw a mid-twenties lady shopping in the supermarket in Beijing, wearing high heels and a pair of exceptionally neatly-pressed pyjamas with cartoon elephants on them. I saw another lady somewhere else wearing pyjamas as well. And there's the girls and lads who look like their wardrobes vomited the clothes over them and they just went with whatever landed in the right place. I think it is great because everyone should be an individual and not a conformist. Do what makes you happy and not what other people say you “should” do.

One thing I didn't like, and this is going to sound odd, was the food! I actually prefer the westernised take-away Chinese food such as I eat in New Zealand. Part of that probably comes from my inability to read a Chinese menu. In the tourist spots (say, in Chengdu or Songpan) there are English-language menus or menus with pictures, but most of the places I was at didn't have those of course. Instead I would go in the kitchen and point at things. And this was where things would get weird. I would point at some pork, an onion, a tomato, some green vegetables, make the sign for “just mix all that up together” and then they would bring me out three full meals: say, one made of pork and onions, one pork and tomato, and one a soup of vegetables and tomatoes. It didn't seem to matter that I was one person and most of the food would go to waste (although I can eat a lot!). And I never knew the price of anything when I did that so often I got a nasty surprise when the bill came. Sometimes I had good food in China (the donkey meat dish I had in Beijing was a stand-out) but they do have a liking for serving dishes swimming in pools of oil or grease, and frying everything where-ever possible. And then there's the soups made up of hunks of fat; no meat, just repulsive great globs of fat and nothing else. Yeah, the food is not good in China.

Another funny thing stemming from me not speaking Chinese, was when I didn't understand someone (which was always) they would often write out what they had said in Chinese characters for me. I sort of get that, because some people can read a language without being able to speak it properly, but if I plainly can't understand a single word they are saying should they really expect me to understand an entire paragraph of symbols?

Anyway, China is done. Malaysia is now. I'm considering a mystery country next for just a few weeks, before I head to Thailand.

 

[nanoboy]

I'm betting on Cambodia or Laos.

 

[Chlidonias]

Here are the stats of the trip so far (up to and including the ninth of December because that was the last day in China).

*4 countries (not counting Hong Kong): South Korea, Russia, Mongolia, China

*129 days; 18.5 weeks; 4.3 months

*263 species of birds, 196 of them lifers

*37 species of mammals, 33 of them lifers

*10 zoos and aquariums

*210 hours on trains (roughly)

*32 different hotels, hostels, guesthouses, homestays and yurts

MONEY:
The values are estimates because of currency exchange rates changing and banks using different rates when taking money out of ATMs. I have used conversion rates of 1000 Korean Won to one NZ Dollar; 25 Russian Roubles to one NZ Dollar; 1100 Mongolian Tughrik to one NZ Dollar; 0.78 US Dollars to one NZ Dollar; and 5 Chinese Yuan to one NZ Dollar. These were the current exchange rates at the time I started my trip. There are some discrepancies because of rounding. The foreign currency totals at the end (AU$, US$, UK Pounds, Euros) are straight from the XE Currency Converter, converted from the NZ$ total for each line.

Note also that this is only money spent "on the road". It does not include anything paid for before leaving New Zealand, which includes visa costs, the Trans-Siberian train, or any of the flights so far except the one between Chengdu and Lijiang (to see the Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys).


*502,700 Korean Won = roughly NZ$502 [AU$455; US$416; UK253; Euro 303]
*22,189 Russian Roubles = roughly NZ$887 [AU$805; US$736; UK447; Euro 535]
*349,825 Mongolian Tughrik plus 572 US Dollars = roughly NZ$1051 [AU$954; US$872; UK530; Euro 634]
*29,067 Chinese Yuan = roughly NZ$5813 [AU$5277; US$4826; UK2935; Euro 3508]

TOTAL: NZ$8253 [AU$7491; US$6853; UK4167; Euro 4981]
Average per day NZ$64 [AU$58; US$53; UK32; Euro 38]

 

[nanoboy]

32 different places of accommodation means 32 different town/cities?

You should write reviews on Tripadvisor.

 

[Chlidonias]

32 different places of accommodation means 32 different town/cities?

You should write reviews on Tripadvisor.

not quite 32 different towns/cities. In a couple of cities I stayed at more than one hotel/hostel. And some accommodations weren't anywhere near a town or city (e.g. the Mongolian yurts and some of the Chinese reserves). Some accommodations I stayed at numerous times (e.g. the Mr Panda hostel in Chengdu -- I was in and out of Chengdu maybe four or five times -- but I have only counted those once). Also I have been through many many towns and cities without staying overnight (some destinations require multiple bus/train trips over the course of a day or days).

I have never written a Tripadvisor report, but I do use the site sometimes. In fact here in KL I was going to stay at a hostel called Le Village because in 2011 I stayed at the one in Malacca and it was very good and cheap. Just before leaving Shanghai I thought I'd have a look on Tripadvisor at the reports and almost every one was bad, saying the place is infested with both bedbugs and drugged-up hippies (you should have a look!) -- so I went to Sunshine Bedz instead which is much nicer. No bedbugs or hippies. Well, one hippy but one is alright. And one of this hostel's rules is no smoking or drugs which is good for me.

 

[nanoboy]

Those reviews are nuts! My brother and cousin went on about night out in KL. Some dude asked them if they wanted to party, they said yes and followed him down an alley and up a flight of stairs into a brothel. The guy offered them free dinner, brought the girls out, they declined and left (after eating the free dinner). My cousin lives in a rough part of the west end of London so I was a bit surprised by the lack of street sense.

Anyway, here are two links. The first is for the hotel we stayed in in KL, and the second is some Amazon reviews of a new TV.

The Royale Chulan Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia): See 1,158 Hotel Reviews and 802 Photos - TripAdvisor

Best Amazon Reviews of $40,000 Samsung LED Smart TV - ABC News

 

[nanoboy]

Oh PS, my bro and cousin were bricking it because they were so scared they would be robbed, especially since they thought 'club' meant night club. Idiots! Then again, I made the same mistake with these jokers in Zurich a few years ago. I had to explain to the Madame that we were merely looking for a night club and didn't realise it was THAT kind of club. I also thought we were getting a bargain for 2.5cl of alcohol, thinking that equated to 250ml. It's actually just 25ml, so we got ripped off big time.

 

[zooboy28]

You have spent a fair chunk of money in China Chlidonias, was that excluding international travel? Were the visas expensive? You've probably said this already, but this is a tricky thread to find stuff in!

Is your spending fairly close to what you anticipated or quite different?

Have you bought much actual stuff (souvenirs, zoo brochures/maps, etc)? Its hard travelling for ages and wanting to accumulate stuff, but being unable to due to space/weight issues. I sent some stuff back to NZ when we got to Estonia on my travels (much cheaper to post from there than Sweden!).

I know what you mean about the backpackers on organised tours, we were some of the few backpackers in Europe who weren't on bus tours and I'm very glad we weren't. Much more immersive to travel with the locals. And I imagine (/hope) cheaper as well. Although I'm not sure how we would go travelling in China, sounds fairly difficult without knowing the language.

And its still great reading the thread, lots of interesting stuff happening. Keep it coming!

 

[Chlidonias]

You have spent a fair chunk of money in China Chlidonias, was that excluding international travel? Were the visas expensive? You've probably said this already, but this is a tricky thread to find stuff in!

Is your spending fairly close to what you anticipated or quite different?

Have you bought much actual stuff (souvenirs, zoo brochures/maps, etc)? Its hard travelling for ages and wanting to accumulate stuff, but being unable to due to space/weight issues. I sent some stuff back to NZ when we got to Estonia on my travels (much cheaper to post from there than Sweden!).

I know what you mean about the backpackers on organised tours, we were some of the few backpackers in Europe who weren't on bus tours and I'm very glad we weren't. Much more immersive to travel with the locals. And I imagine (/hope) cheaper as well. Although I'm not sure how we would go travelling in China, sounds fairly difficult without knowing the language.

And its still great reading the thread, lots of interesting stuff happening. Keep it coming!

China has burned a big hole in my wallet! That is why I've thrown out the idea of going to Japan. Bear in mind that I was in China for three months though, and when you're travelling for wildlife you spend more than regular backpackers because you've got to get to the out-of-the-way places. And especially travelling alone helps the money add up because there's no splitting costs for transport etc when going to those out-of-the-way places! China isn't a cheap destination any more though. Everyone I meet along the way says the same thing and they are the ones doing the usual tourist routes.

Yes the costs are excluding international flights and visas. The visas themselves aren't too expensive (I think the China one was NZ$110 for the initial 45 days; the extensions were 160 Yuan/NZ$32 each and were paid for at the time of extending in China), but the Russian one in particular cost a whole heap more than just the visa because of all the documentation I needed to obtain from within Russia (due to their strictness on NZers applying we have more expensive requirements than most nationalities). I think the China, Russia and Mongolia visas together, with all the accompanying documents etc, cost around NZ$1500!

I'm roughly where I expected for expenditure though. I bet on about NZ$60 per day for the more expensive countries so NZ$64 is all right. Australia costs me more, most of southeast Asia (except Indonesia) much less. In fact Malaysia, which I tend to think of as expensive (two Ringgit per one NZ Dollar), is cheaper than China by quite a margin.

I tend not to buy souvenirs. Because I'm going for wildlife my bags are weighty enough as it is with binoculars, cameras, books....! When I went to Indonesia and Borneo in 2009 I think I ended up with 15 different books in my bag for birds, mammals, reptiles and frogs (and the Birds Of Wallacea just by itself weighs about 1.5kg). This trip I have currently just four books (Birds of China, Mammals of China, Birds of East Asia, and Birds of Southeast Asia). The first two I will post home soon, the third one I will keep in case I do go to Taiwan, and the last one covers all of southeast Asia so that's the one I'll be using from now on. But I do need to find a Mammals of Southeast Asia somewhere hopefully. If I go back to Borneo I'll also need to get books for there again too.