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This is not going to be a post with lots of pictures.  Actually none at all. I am writing this from an Internet cafe – and thus not photo editing and sharing. For that you have to wait a bit more.

However, this IS a post about my arrival in Bangkok, and my impressions after a day and a half.

The first thing I noticed about Bangkok was the overpowering heat. The moment I stepped out of the airport it hit me like a wave. For a few moments I could not breathe. Of course, that passed pretty quick.  The second thing I noticed is the traffic – or more precisely the gridlock that is Bangkok. I took an Airport Express (not…quite) from the airport and it took some time to arrive in the general area that my hotel is located. And the third thing I noticed? The huge mass of people. It is the same impression I had in China, yet it seems more dynamic – or more chaotic. But all these things – you will find out that not only no longer annoy me (ok, except the heat) but they started to grow on me…

The heat is fought with aircon. This discovery of the modern age that keeps us sane here is used with…gusto. Bars that have open terraces use 6 or 8 aircons only at the entrance, and up to 10 ceiling fans. The skytrain (BTS as the original name) uses such a low temperature aircon that I am actually shivering in it.

The traffic is pretty simple to manage – I just have to keep in mind that: 1. people give way to tuk-tuks – tuk-tuks give way to cabs and cars – these give way to buses, minivans and other users of the street. And all comply to the kind-of present traffic police. It’s actually fun:) 2. there are some amazing ways to quickly for from one part of the city to the other – the SkyTrain is one – a fast train that is perched on top of the highways, which are on top of the BKK traffic. And also the river express which not only is fast (a great thing to start!) but also offers very nice photo opportunities.

And finally – the people. More often than not smiling, helpful, and a very likable people. ‘Sanuk’ here is a big thing – always having fun, always trying to find compromises, avoiding conflicts, and measuring life by the fun part in it. I have never met a people more open to having their pictures taken, nor so fast to apologize for everything (like the English sometimes). Of course, there are a lot of tourists also. It actually is pretty crowded at some of the monuments and sights – the “good” season started, so a lot of French, Germans, Americans, Dutch, Danes, Swedes, Spanish (and these are the ones I id’ed) are here.

Speaking of which – it’s fun to see the number of people who are having Thai girlfriends. Generally faar younger than them. It’s a well-known thing, but it is actually fun to see first-hand. Now, maybe the location where my hotel is located does tend to attract a certain kind of people (unlike previous travels where I found myself in Chinatowns, now I am in/close-by a red-light district).

And last but not least (for the moment) – the food. It’s delicious. It was to be expected, but it’s even more delicious when eating it And thank God – no more sticks!

I will soon write about the Palace and the different temples (Wats), post some pictures, and generally do a better job of telling my adventures in the land of smiles.

flights to China from Finnair

Found a pretty good offer to fly to China (Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong) from Finnair for 1655 ron, which translates to 396 euro. The offer is a special deal, so it is available only to June 3rd. The biggest problem though is that in summer China can be pretty hot. These days Beijing enjoys a scorching 37C.

Having said that, the price is pretty hard to beat…

This is the second post in the series about sights in China which I did not have the time to write about when I was still in there. The first post was  Along the Great Wall – a description of that trip and a photo gallery.

Today the theme is the Forbidden City – with it’s countless palaces and gardens. This huge area contains a huge number of beautiful buildings and squares, a lot still not open to the public. Some of the smaller palaces have little museums opened inside (like the jade or bronze museums). The main series of palaces and courtyards – following the north-south axis – is the focus and highway for tourists, but the buildings on the east and west sides are also impressive. At the north entrance there is a beautiful garden complex – complete with rock formations, ponds and small wooden buildings.

You can find 50 more photos in this post.

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This post was long overdue, always in the making and always left for “another time”. Well, what with the weekend around the office corner I finally found the time to write about one of the “must-do” visits in China: a visit to the Great Wall.

I finally organized this trip on the last day I stayed in Beijing, right before going by train to Shanghai. It was not the smartest thing, as right after I returned from the Great Wall I had to go to the train station. However, this is my usual lack of planning. In the evening before I made a reservation to one of the two available tours to the Great Wall (available at my hostel).

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Before I write a more consistent blog post, probably with some photos as well, I wanted to share these 3 short video clips I had around. The quality is not great, but they are somewhat interesting.

The first video was shot on the last day I spent in Beijing, at the famous Lama temple. It is a moving prayer wheel, which Buddhist believers use to spin thus giving life to the prayer written on the wheel. The second video was also shot in Beijing, this time in Beihan park. The park had a lot of people singing, dancing and playing a lot of games. I went there on a weekend day, and the atmosphere was very pleasant.

The last video – shot at the Temple of Heaven – is of a group of people forming an impromptu orchestra. A lot of people joined as the music went on, either participating in singing or just enjoying the music.

There were a lot of sights and sounds that I could capture in video, however most of the times I either didn’t have the little digital camera with me, or I first thought in photographic terms and only as an afterthought in video terms.

Well, all good things must come to an end. Tomorrow at 11:40am I have a flight for Amsterdam then Bucharest. And I do not really hate the fact that I will fly for almost 19 hours (huge layover in Amsterdam) as much as the fact that I have to leave this beautiful country. But before leaving, I did have to visit a few more areas today. As there are so many nice places to see I had to skip a lot of places of course.

After checking in this morning, I took the subway to Lama temple, which is the second most important Buddhist temple. It is part working temple, part museum, part tourist attraction. All parts pretty interesting for me. Even though it’s Sunday there weren’t that many tourists, which was a welcome change. Lots of people praying at the temple, so it was a nice thing to see people really using this place of religion instead visiting it as just tourists.

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This is the second part of the post I have written regarding moving around in Shanghai, Beijing and in-between. If you are more interested about the trains and planes you can get to get from city to city you should check that post first.

In this post I will post a few pics from the subway and try to explain a bit how one should get from place to place. Maybe someone who was thinking about going to China but had concerns regarding the means of getting around. Well, all those concerns were definitely misplaced. I cannot tell anything about other places besides Beijing and Shanghai – but I do plan to continue the research. Until then – I have to do a bit of praising for the subway systems in these two cities.

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The post today is going to have more of an utilitarian purpose. I know when I started to plan for the trip to China I was definitely looking for this kind of info. And while it is true that usually it is not hard to find specific info – and probably more detailed than what I am going to write here – it still might help people doing research. Or those to scared to consider a trip to China because of language barriers and concerns about managing day to day tasks.

Sadly this post cannot shed any light on long-distance bus rides, nor metropolitan transit in other cities beside Shanghai and Beijing. However, as I traveled Beijing – Shanghai by train and plane and in the cities themselves by a few means of transportation I hope I can give a general idea what to expect.

I will start with the long-distance and then move to short-distance.

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In case you are wondering what the hell is that in the title, it is the name of a small water village near Shanghai. These are old villages that now survive in large part on the buses full of visitors coming to visit a slice of authentic village life. Visiting a water village is one of the main things one can do around Shanghai, and I was not going to miss this.

Of course, once I arrived I realised pretty quickly that the villages are maintained in their current state in order to attract visitors. The “new” villages, which are residential areas near the authentic ones are dead giveaways. Still, they are great photo opportunities.

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This short post is going to be a mere continuation of Lost in Shanghai, mostly bringing a few more pictures. Yesterday, because of the very late hour I couldn’t complete the photo album, so now this can be seen as a second part. While there are some photos from Shanghai proper, most are from the later part of the day – the trip to Pearl Tower and visiting the museum there. I hope you like it, even though there is no great story surrounding the photos.

Unfortunately at this time the WiFi works extremely slow, so I have no chance to write more. Though maybe later, or tomorrow morning the situation will improve.