Travel Zulu

I am in Beijing now. It is a holiday this week in China so I decided to just fly up to Beijing. The hotel in Shanghai was a little expensive and I decided I am too old now to stay in dormitory rooms.

I plan to stay here for at least the next couple of months, despite the cool weather and I put a deposit on an apartment today. After about 6 months of living in bungalows, bamboo huts, cheap hotels, sometimes smelly hotels and hostels with shared bathrooms it will be nice to unpack my bag.

The apartment is one bedroom with a kitchen and living room. It is about US$500 a month. I know you can get cheaper rooms, but it is harder to negotiate if you are only staying a short time. The building is pretty new and it is fully furnished and includes internet access. It is about a 15 minute walk from a subway station and a short bike ride from central Beijing.

I made it China with a pretty uneventful journey on Air Asia. It was my first time flying with them and they were ok. They are your typical budget airline with no frills.

You can buy food from them, but no alcohol is sold. What I couldn’t believe is that they don’t have any first or business class and none of the seats are assigned. The flight was full though.

I had no problem not having an onward ticket. Lonely Planet only had a couple of expensive hotels and a youth hostel 15 km out of town. On the airport bus into Shenzhen the guide on the bus called and booked a hotel for me. After everyone left she waited withme until someone from the hotel came and picked me up.

The hotel is 170RMB a night around US$21 and it is a nice looking hotel, especially after some of the places I stayed in Malaysia.

I am about to get on a plane to Shenzhen. It is about a four hour flight. I am flying on Air Asia and they fly from a smaller airport away from the main airport in Kuala Lumpur. The facilities are still ok, and they have free wifi throughout the airport.

From Shenzhen it is a twenty hour plus train ride to Shanghai. Beijing is further north, but takes about the same time. My plan is to visit each of the event cities for the Olympics. I like traveling on Chinese trains. They are slow, but fairly comfortable. I picked a few new books to read on the way. My bag was even over the 15kg limit.

I didn’t see enough of Malaysia, but I hope to get back some time soon.

I put in my application for a visa at the Chinese embassy yesterday. They said it would be ready by Wednesday. I wanted to get a move on, so I paid for the express visa and pick it up Monday morning. I booked my AirAsia flight to Shenzhen today for Monday afternoon. I bought just a one way ticket. It seems this is more of a problem with the airlines rather than the immigration.

The flight from KL to Shenzhen was just over $200 - not bad but it would have been cheaper if I booked it earlier. I watched Geelong beat Collingwood last night. I walked by an English pub and it just happened to be on. The pub was full so I sat down at a table with some English guys. They had no idea what was going on, so I had to explain a bit of the rules.

Took the bus from Penang to Kuala Lumpur. The bus had only three seats to a row, and were more like sofa chairs. It also wasn’t busy which is also a plus.

Hotels are more expensive in the capital and budget places are mostly dorm rooms. I wanted to have a good night sleep, so I got a nice room for at least tonight. When I get to China, I will probably only stay in dorms so I might just have a bit of luxury here in KL.

Walking around the streets to night, the atmosphere was pretty lively and looks as though there are some great places to eat. Tomorrow’s mission is finding the Chinese embassy and then I want to check out the twin towers, which aren’t too far away from where I am staying - the golden triangle as it is called here.

I caught the ferry back to Penang today, about a two and a half hour trip. I have been in Malaysia for around 10 days and I really like the place. I always thought that it was more expensive than other South East Asian countries, but it is comparable to Thailand and since the baht has been so strong lately, I think in could be even cheaper than Thailand.

I had a huge bowl of noodles tonight from a street vendor for just 3 ringit (US$0.80). I had heard beer was more expensive, but I went to a reggae bar last night and they were selling Tiger beers for just 4 ringit. The bar had a live band who play every night. They are a great band and the Malay singer is unbelievable. He looks more Samoan and plays percussion when he sings.

It was a little bit sad to leave Langkawi. I had some fun nights going out and it is just a beautiful layed back kind of place. Malaysia is mostly muslim but they don’t seem too strict. Not all restaurants sell alcohol, but there are still plenty of bars in the tourist destinations. For South East Asia it seems to have more order about the place. People actually wear helmets when riding motor bikes.

I know now it is low season and there aren’t too many tourists around, but you just don’t hear about Malaysia as much as say Thailand, Bali or Vietnam. Perhaps it is better to keep it a secret from the rest of the world.

Here is a video I took when I was in Laos. It is of a small market on the side of a road which sold a bit of food and various bush medicines.

I am still in Langkawi. It has rained fairly constantly the last few days, but I have decided to stay a little longer.

Even if it rains, I can get quite a bit of work done with the free wifi available here. Another guy staying here from Sweden makes his money working remotely, doing programming.

Langkawi has some very beautiful beaches and it is a great place to get away from it all. The whole island is a duty free zone which is great if you like shopping. I don’t like shopping but I do like the cheap imported beers.

I took the ferry from Georgetown to Langkawi this morning. There are only two ferries operating now at 8:15 am and 8:30 am. The later one stops off at another island. It is only a 2.5 hour trip.

I took a look at the beach and the water looks beautiful. The place I am staying is pretty simple and a little walk from the beach, but the owner is friendly and they have free wifi, which is pretty amazing for a cheap bungalow.

I booked for four nights and I think I will enjoy just staying here for the next four days.

If you would like to stay there, you need to book through the internet. The place is called Zachry’s in Langkawi. There are cheaper places to stay, but I have heard of thefts from places on the beach. Zachry also has plenty of DVDs to watch if you just want to chill out watching a movie.