Author archive
16 September 2026
Arriving in Beijing I woke after two 3 hour dozes, assisted by two half sleeping pills. They crew served an excellent frittata for breakfast but I chose the alternative of congee which looked identical to the one from about a year ago. Landing at 0405, I thought we were much earlier than the scheduled arrival […]
15 September 2026
Today we begin a long-awaited journey to Pakistan via China to visit Kim & Jo’s cousin and travel the Karakoram Highway to Xinjiang. We had booked this trip in 2020 but the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown forced us to cancel, fortunately with no penalties but full refunds. With a departure time of 1930, Chris dropped us […]
6 August 2026
We arrived in Auckland about 20 mins earlier than the scheduled time of 0540. The arrival processing has improved in the last few years and I was out immediately, helped by the fact that a few flights before us had already been cleared. D wasn’t too far behind, despite having luggage and food to declare. […]
5 August 2026
Flying to Shanghai Today I fly from Dalian back to Auckland, transiting in Shanghai’s Pudong airport. The day started with a 0430 wake-up in Dalian and leaving the room at 0500. I had no luck getting a car promptly and shared one with a lady that had better luck. Getting to the airport, I gave […]
4 August 2026
Going to Lushun I wanted to make an excursion to Lushun or Port Arthur, as it was called during the Russian era. With super-hot weather on the cards again, I decided to jump on the opportunity to go early when I woke up naturally at 0550. I gobbled down some breakfast and said goodbye to […]
3 August 2026
Zhongshan Square I have to pay D for the expenses that he had incurred on my behalf in China (whereas he had to pay me for those in Russia). He preferred to be paid in China in CNY rather than back in New Zealand in NZD. That suited me well and we rocked up around […]
2 August 2026
My last stop As I had somewhat kept to Russian Far East time, it wasn’t a problem taking the 0742 train from Dandong. The 0400 sunrise helped too. We took a taxi to Dandong’s small station in good time for our final train ride in Manchuria to the city of Dalian. Dalian and neighbouring Lushun […]
1 August 2026
Moving to the North Korean border Today, we move on to Dandong on China’s border with North Korea. With sunrise around 0400 in this part of China, I didn’t mind booking the early train leaving at 0827 leaving from Shenyang station, as opposed to Shenyang North where we had arrived yesterday. Surprisingly, there was no […]
31 July 2026
Moving to Shenyang Today we go to Shenyang to visit its Forbidden City. This was a relatively late add-on to my plan, made possible by shaving one night off Dandong which comes after. We left at 0800 by car to Harbin station where we got dropped off in an underground area. For some reason, our […]
30 July 2026
Siberian Tigers The plan for the day was to go to the Siberian Tiger Centre and the Unit 731 where the Japanese experimented with Germ Warfare. The two places were in the opposite direction and we would make separate trips, including the Spanish guy Vicente for the latter. It worked out better for Vicente for […]